FPGA and Emulation Prototyping Engineer - MCU

NXP’s Industrial & IoT Edge solutions range from the smallest MCUs to very high-performance processors to provide real-time insights and efficient automation when performance matters most. NXP’s advanced portfolio of edge processing solutions lets developers explore their most innovative ideas with confidence, enabling applications across the autonomous home, industrial automation, and personal electronics.

NXP is building new teams in Catania to create high impact micro-controllers (MCU) as part of NXP’s intelligent AI at the Edge. This team will include a wide range of engineering talent from analog to SOC digital design. Full product development local will product world class products at a world class pace.

We are seeking a skilled and motivated FPGA Prototyping/Emulation Engineer to join our hardware design team. The ideal candidate will have hands-on experience in FPGA-based prototyping and emulation of complex SoC designs, and will work closely with RTL designers, verification engineers, and software teams to enable early software development and system validation.

The candidate should be able to define, lead, and execute a long-term strategy for pre-silicon validation leveraging emulation and FPGA prototyping platforms. This role will drive the optimization and automation of the emulation infrastructure and enable hardware, software, firmware, and validation teams to efficiently execute and validate complex microcontroller SoCs.

Your Responsibilities.

• Develop, bring-up and maintain pre-silicon Emulation/FPGA-based prototyping platforms like HAPS-100/Veloce/ Palladium/ZeBU or FPGA for IP/SoC.
• Integrate and debug RTL blocks on FPGA platforms (e.g., Xilinx, Intel/Altera).
• Collaborate with design and verification teams to bring up emulation environments.
• Optimize FPGA resource usage and timing closure for large-scale designs.
• Support software teams with early access to hardware through emulation/prototyping.
• Automate build and deployment flows using scripting languages (Python, Tcl, Shell).
• Document design flows, debug procedures, and provide training/support to internal teams.
• Develop and execute system use case scenarios.
• Define test strategy, create tests plan, and develop tests to address functional and performance requirements.

Your Profile.

• Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, or related field.
• 5+ years of hands-on experience in emulation/FPGA prototyping.
• Strong understanding of digital design fundamentals.
• Experience with Verilog/System Verilog and working knowledge of C/C++
• Experience with FPGA tools such as Vivado, Quartus, Synplify, or similar.
• Familiarity with at least some of the emulation platforms like Veloce, HAPS-100, Palladium or Zebu is important.
• Experience in working on ARM/RISC-V core architecture would be an advantage.
• Proficiency in scripting languages (Python, Perl, Tcl).
• Good problem-solving and debugging skills.
• Excellent communication and teamwork abilities.

NXP is committed to equal pay for equal work and work of equal value and applies fair, consistent and transparent remuneration practices.

As of the date of this posting, the estimated gross annual base salary range for this position in Italy is between 50,600 € and 69,600 € annually. This range is intended as a guideline. Actual compensation may vary based on qualifications, experience, skills, and specific business or organizational needs. This position falls under the applicable National Collective Labour Agreement (Metalmeccanica Industria). Where relevant, the total compensation package may also include additional elements such as annual incentive opportunities and/or equity, along with a competitive benefits package.

• competitive benefits package

More information about NXP in Italy...