Lead Firmware Engineer at STR
Arlington, VA
$157,000–$224,000from the description
Jul 22, 2026
Arlington, VA
Jul 23, 2026
What this job asks for AI summary
A lead-level firmware engineering role centered on designing and implementing radar and electronic warfare signal processing algorithms — such as pulse compression, FFT, CFAR detection, and beamforming — in FPGAs using Verilog or VHDL. The work spans the full development lifecycle, from architecture and simulation through hardware integration and production transition. The role also involves mentoring junior engineers, managing task schedules, and briefing stakeholders.
Senior level · 7+ years · Boston-Cambridge-Newton, MA-NH · Top Secret clearance · Full-time
“or” means any one of them counts — you don't need all of them.
We read this from the posting text with AI. Skim the description below before ruling yourself out.
How this req sits in the market our data
Rare in this occupation — lead with these, and say what you built with them.
What the occupation pays Median $169,742 (middle half $134,780–$187,781). This posting is about at that midpoint.
Estimated from BLS employment for this occupation and area, per-skill prevalence across our listing corpus, and published wage benchmarks — as of Jul 28, 2026. It is a model, not a headcount.
Why we read it this way (9)
The role is titled 'Lead Firmware Engineer' with no explicit seniority level word in the title, so advertised seniority is Unspecified; however, the 7+ years minimum experience requirement and mentorship/team-building responsibilities support a Senior classification.
The degree requirement is effectively None: the JD accepts a Bachelor's + 7 yrs, Master's + 5 yrs, PhD + 2 yrs, or equivalent experience — no single degree is a hard gate.
The clearance gate is 'ability to obtain a Top Secret' — not an active clearance requirement. An active Secret or TS clearance is listed under Nice to Haves.
SOC classification is Medium confidence: FPGA firmware engineering sits at the boundary between embedded/hardware design (no perfect SOC match) and software development (15-1252); 15-1299 (Computer Occupations, All Other) is the runner-up.
The company lists multiple locations (Boston MA, Arlington VA, Dayton OH, Melbourne FL, Carlsbad CA); Boston is used as the primary CBSA given it is listed first and appears to be the headquarters.
MATLAB, Python, and C/C++ are listed together under Nice to Haves as interchangeable algorithmic/scripting tools; they are captured as a single preferred skill with alternatives.
Filter design is subsumed under the broader Digital signal processing required skill rather than emitted separately, as it is described as a component of DSP experience rather than a standalone named tool.
Ignored 3 non-technology phrase(s) as skills (responsibilities/concepts, not named tools): FPGA design, Fixed-point optimization, RTL design.
Requires a Top Secret clearance — the cleared population is a small fraction of this occupation, so the real candidate pool is materially smaller than the estimate below, which does not model clearance.
Read the full posting
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