How do you reach FPGA engineers who aren't looking for a job?

The pool is small relative to demand, and strong FPGA engineers are rarely unemployed or browsing job boards. We approach them directly rather than advertising and waiting for applications.

Should I hire separate RTL design and verification engineers?

For anything beyond a small, low-risk design, yes. The two are different skill sets in practice, and asking one engineer to do both well on a demanding project usually means one half of the work gets less attention than it needs.

Does FPGA experience transfer well from ASIC design, or vice versa?

There's meaningful crossover in RTL design and verification methodology. Toolchains, timing constraints and physical implementation differ enough to be a real gap rather than a formality, but in a pool this tight it's often the faster route to a shortlist than holding out for FPGA-only experience.

All roles

Engineering & Technical

FPGA & Digital Design recruitment

FPGA and digital design sits among the tightest, highest-paid talent pools in UK engineering. Genuinely experienced VHDL and Verilog engineers are scarce, and the discipline rewards being worked directly and deeply.

The skills within it are more specialised than a job title suggests. RTL design, verification and timing closure each ask for something different, and verification in particular has grown into its own discipline, a strong RTL designer and a strong verification engineer are rarely the same person. We take the brief at that level of detail, because the difference between the two decides whether a hire lands.

Hiring? Tell us about the role Looking for a FPGA & Digital Design role?

What this covers

RTL design (VHDL/Verilog)
FPGA verification (UVM / formal)
Timing closure & place-and-route
High-speed digital design
SoC/FPGA co-design
DSP on FPGA

Roles we place

FPGA EngineerDigital Design EngineerVHDL/Verilog EngineerFPGA Verification Engineer

What makes a strong FPGA & Digital Design candidate

A strong FPGA or digital design candidate can talk fluently about the trade-offs in a specific project, not just list VHDL or Verilog on a CV: why a particular architecture was chosen, what closed timing and what didn't on the first pass, how a verification strategy was structured against the actual risk in the design. For RTL design roles, evidence of taking a design from spec through to silicon or production, not just simulation, is a strong signal. For verification-focused roles, familiarity with UVM, formal verification or a specific coverage methodology matters more than raw years of experience. We also look at adjacent experience: a DSP background, SoC co-design exposure, or strong ASIC work. In a pool this tight, transferable skill often reaches a shortlist faster than an exact like-for-like match.

Where the talent sits

FPGA and digital design roles concentrate around defence, aerospace and semiconductor clusters, Cambridge, Bristol and the M4 corridor in particular, reflecting how tightly FPGA work is tied to radar, electronic warfare and high-reliability signal-processing programmes. Because FPGA toolchains and licences are often tied to a specific lab or workstation setup, fully remote arrangements are less common here than in software-adjacent disciplines, though hybrid patterns are increasingly normal.

Typical hiring timeline

For contract briefs we typically go from brief to contractor offered in about 5 days. That's the company-wide figure; niche or cleared roles take longer.

FPGA & Digital Design hiring: frequently asked questions

Hiring in FPGA & Digital Design?

Tell us what the role needs to do. We'll come back with questions about the work, and an honest read on what the brief will take.

Tell us about the role Or see live FPGA & Digital Design roles