Altera
FPGA System Design Engineer
San Jose, California, United States · Mid
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odds of building a lasting career here
Sponsors, but it's cap-subject — you still face the weighted lottery (~45% per draw at Level III). Good if you win; have a cap-exempt backup on your list.
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Personalize to your clock →H-1B wage level
the lottery is wage-weighted — each level is one more entry
The bottom of this range ($118,900) is below the Level I prevailing wage of $124,405. An H-1B cannot be filed below the prevailing wage, so an offer at the floor of this band could not be sponsored as posted.
Based on the DOL prevailing wage for this occupation and worksite, a base salary of $155,896 would place this position at wage Level II. That figure is within the posted range, and I'd like to target it. This role classifies under "Electronics Engineers, Except Computer" for prevailing-wage purposes.
DOL prevailing wage, 2026-27 wage year · Electronics Engineers, Except Computer (17-2072) · San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA. Wage level is derived by USCIS from the offered wage, occupation and worksite; the occupation shown is inferred from the job title.
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Green-card intent detected
Files H-1B transfers
Sourced from Department of Labor LCA, PERM and prevailing-wage disclosure data. Employer matching is by name, so figures may be split across an employer's legal entities. Absence of a filing means none appears in our copy of the data, not that none exists.
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About the role
- This position provides an exciting opportunity to work on cutting-edge technologies including FPGA-based DSP, embedded systems, AI inference, high-speed data converters, and advanced RF signal processing applications.
- The pay range below is for Bay Area California only.
Responsibilities
- Design, develop, and implement FPGA-based solutions using RTL, DSP Builder, and embedded processor technologies for defense and aerospace applications.
- Develop benchmarks, proof-of-concept demonstrations, reference designs, and complete system solutions that showcase FPGA performance and value.
- Collaborate closely with FPGA software and tools teams to identify customer needs, drive tool enhancements, and influence future product features.
- Analyze system-level performance and optimize FPGA implementations for throughput, latency, power, and resource utilization.
- Support customer design activities including architecture reviews, debugging, performance tuning, and technical enablement.
- Contribute technical collateral including design documentation, application notes, training materials, and best-practice guides.
- Partner directly with strategic customers to deploy and optimize DSP, communications, AI, and signal processing algorithms on Altera FPGA devices.
Requirements
- Bachelor's Degree in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, Computer Science, or a related technical discipline.
- 3+ years of experience in FPGA design and algorithm implementation.
- 2+ years of software development experience using C/C++.
- 1+ year of FPGA development experience using Verilog or VHDL.
- Strong understanding of digital logic design and FPGA development methodologies.
- Experience debugging and validating complex hardware/software systems.
- Accordingly, all applicants must be eligible to obtain and maintain a U.S. Government security clearance as a condition of employment.
- Failure to obtain or maintain the required security clearance may result in the withdrawal of an employment offer or termination of employment, consistent with applicable law.
- Applicants must be eligible for any required U.S. export authorizations.
- Excellent analytical, communication, and problem-solving skills.
Nice to have
- Master's Degree in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, Computer Science, or related field.
- Hands-on experience with:
- MATLAB and Simulink
- Quartus® Prime and ModelSim™/Questa™ simulation tools
- Real-Time Operating Systems (RTOS)
- Background in one or more of the following:
- Digital Signal Processing (DSP)
- Signal and Image Processing
Skills
- Actual salary may vary based on a number of factors including job location, job-related knowledge, skills, experiences, trainings, etc.
Compensation
- The pay range below is for Bay Area California only.
- Actual salary may vary based on a number of factors including job location, job-related knowledge, skills, experiences, trainings, etc.
- We also offer incentive opportunities that reward employees based on individual and company performance.
Company info
- We also offer incentive opportunities that reward employees based on individual and company performance.
Visa & Work Authorization
- Security Clearance Requirement
This listing is sourced directly from Altera's careers page and normalized into a canonical job model.