As an FPGA Engineer at cosine, you design and implement high-performance FPGA image processing solutions that enable next-generation Earth observation missions. You work at the intersection of electronics and software, turning raw sensor data into usable insights directly on hardware.
Working within the Electronics team, you will play a key bridging role between electronics and embedded software development. You will collaborate closely with software engineers to ensure efficient hardware-software integration, making a solid understanding of software development practices highly valuable.
Your work interfaces to new and high-bandwidth detectors, increases processing speed, and enables smart instruments that operate autonomously in space. Within cosine Remote Sensing, you contribute to compact, high-precision optical payloads used in real space missions, from concept to on-orbit operations.
In this role you will:
- Design, implement, and optimise FPGA architectures for real-time image processing pipelines at challenging data rates
- Translate image processing algorithms into efficient hardware implementations, including filtering, compression, and feature extraction
- Perform general FPGA design tasks such as pipeline and architecture definition, building test benches, design verification and validation, and device configuration
- Create and maintain board definition files, define I/O architecture, and manage boot configuration, in-flight reprogramming, memory management, and sensor readout
- Collaborate closely with optical, electronics, embedded software and systems engineers to integrate FPGA solutions into space-borne instruments
- Act as a technical link between hardware and software disciplines, helping to define interfaces, workflows and development practices for FPGA-based products
- Verify and validate FPGA designs through simulation, hardware testing, and system-level integration
- Contribute to continuous improvement of processing performance, power efficiency, and reliability for space applications
- Expand existing designs to interface with and read out new devices such as imaging detectors and ADCs
- Optimise data handling pipelines at challenging data rates, including offloading CPU workloads to FPGA-based solutions
We are looking for candidates with the following qualifications:
- BSc or MSc in Electrical Engineering, Computer Science, Embedded Systems, or a related field
- Proven experience with FPGA development and validation using VHDL, Verilog and/or High-Level Synthesis (HLS)
- Experience with tools such as Vivado, Vitis, Quartus, or similar FPGA design environments
- Strong understanding of digital signal processing and image processing conceptsAffinity with embedded systems and hardware-software co-design
- Basic to intermediate experience with software development in C and/or C++
- Experience with version control systems such as Git and GitLab, including collaborative development workflows
- Understanding of embedded software architectures and the interaction between FPGA, processors and software components
- Familiarity with CMOS image sensors, sensor interfaces, or image acquisition systems is considered a strong advantage
- Interest in space technology, Earth observation, or high-performance instrumentation
- Comfortable operating independently or in small teams
- Proactive, self-directed, and able to ask the right questions to keep work aligned with the larger goal
At cosine, we highly value our employees, and we will support your professional and personal development. We also provide our employees with:
- A unique, international working environment at the intersection of physics and engineering
- The opportunity to deliver end-to-end solutions in autonomous project teams, in close collaboration with customers
- 27 days of annual leave (based on full-time employment)
- Annual bonus based on personal and company performance
- Hybrid working options, including the possibility to work partially from home
- Company bicycle- and fitness plan
- A personal development budget
- Initial one-year contract, with the aim of long-term collaboration
Founded in 1998, cosine is a world-leading developer of space instrumentation and measurement systems, making the invisible measurable and the complex actionable.
Its expertise spans High-Energy Optics, including optics developed for ESA's future NewAthena X-ray observatory, as well as remote sensing solutions for Earth Observation and planetary science.
With over 25 years of experience and advanced cleanroom and assembly facilities across the Netherlands, Germany, and Italy, cosine brings deep scientific and engineering expertise to some of the most demanding missions in space and on Earth.
What makes cosine a unique place to work is that your work goes end-to-end: from concept and design to building, testing, and delivering hardware that actually flies in space. You work in small, highly skilled teams where you have real ownership and impact, alongside experts in optics, physics, nanofabrication, and systems engineering.
cosine is committed to providing an inclusive and equal opportunities work environment where everyone can thrive. As a proud member of the Women in Aerospace community, we recognise the importance of diversity, inclusion, and equal opportunity in the workplace.