Junior FPGA Engineer

DRW is a diversified trading firm with over 3 decades of experience bringing sophisticated technology and exceptional people together to operate in markets around the world. We value autonomy and the ability to quickly pivot to capture opportunities, so we operate using our own capital and trading at our own risk.

Headquartered in Chicago with offices throughout the U.S., Canada, Europe, and Asia, we trade a variety of asset classes including Fixed Income, ETFs, Equities, FX, Commodities and Energy across all major global markets. We have also leveraged our expertise and technology to expand into three non-traditional strategies: real estate, venture capital and cryptoassets.

We operate with respect, curiosity and open minds. The people who thrive here share our belief that it’s not just what we do that matters–it's how we do it. DRW is a place of high expectations, integrity, innovation and a willingness to challenge consensus.

We’re looking for a Junior or Graduate FPGA Engineer to join our FPGA team supporting trading desks in Asia. This is an entry-level role suited to recent graduates, interns, or engineers with 1–2 years of hands-on experience who want to grow their FPGA design skills in a low-latency, high-throughput environment. You’ll work closely with experienced engineers across software, trading and hardware teams, participate in the full development lifecycle, and gain practical experience in FPGA synthesis, lab bring-up and system testing.

What you’ll do

Contribute to the implementation of FPGA applications (RTL development, simulation and verification) under the guidance of senior engineers

Run parts of the FPGA tool flow (synthesis, place & route, static timing analysis) and learn to interpret the results

Help plan and execute system- and block-level testcases and laboratory bring-up of new hardware

Participate in debugging and characterization of boards and FPGA designs; support production incidents with senior team members

Work with software, network and trading teams to integrate FPGA components into broader systems

Research new tools, techniques and FPGA technologies and propose ideas for incremental improvements

Produce clear documentation and test reports

Who we’re looking for

Bachelor’s or Master’s or PhD degree in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, Computer Science or a related field (recent/upcoming graduates welcome)

0–2 years of professional experience, or equivalent experience from internships, research or university projects

Practical experience writing RTL (Verilog or SystemVerilog) — course projects or internship work is fine

Familiarity with FPGA development flows and tools (Xilinx or Intel/Altera) or strong desire to learn them quickly

Basic experience with simulation and verification tools (e.g., ModelSim, Questa, or equivalent) or demonstrable coursework/projects

Comfortable using Linux and basic scripting (Python, Bash) for test automation and tooling

Good problem solving, debugging and communication skills — ability to work collaboratively in cross-functional teams

Eagerness to learn, take feedback, and grow technical ownership over time

Nice to have

Exposure to high-speed interfaces (Ethernet/PCIe/DDR memory) or SoC subsystems

Experience with C/C++ for embedded systems or software-hardware integration

Knowledge of networking fundamentals (TCP/IP) or timing/latency optimization concepts

Familiarity with version control (Git) and CI workflows

What we offer

Mentorship from experienced FPGA and systems engineers

Hands-on learning on real trading hardware and production systems

Opportunities for rapid responsibility growth and career progression

Collaborative, engineering-driven culture and competitive compensation

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