FPGA Engineer

Visa sponsorship is available for this role. We are looking for exceptional talent from anywhere in the world to join our team in London.

About Arctic Lake

We build sophisticated trading technology for Tier 1 banks. We are a lean team today, but we have big ambitions to become a major force in our industry over the next two years. We compete with the biggest HFTs and tech giants for the smartest engineers in the world, but we offer something different. We don’t have the corporate gloss or the massive campus. What we do offer is the rare chance to ship meaningful work to production across an unusually broad technical spectrum - from RTL design to system-level integration - alongside smart, humble people who care deeply about how systems actually work at the nanosecond level.

We don't have established playbooks for everything. We are actively experimenting with how we work, how we grow, and how we solve hardware-software bottlenecks. For the right person, our lack of rigid process in some areas isn't a gap; it’s an opportunity to help build the company’s technical foundation itself. Ideas are welcome, regardless of where they come from, and you'll see the inner workings of a company that's building itself while building its product.

This is the perfect time to join us. You get the agility of a small team combined with the trajectory of a scaling business. You aren't stepping into a static machine; you are helping to build the engine. As we grow, you grow - offering a speed of career progression that the much larger incumbent firms simply cannot match.

About The Role

The FPGA (Field-Programmable Gate Array) team at Arctic Lake is designing and building a pre-trade risk system that risk checks in nanoseconds. As an FPGA Engineer at Arctic Lake, you will bridge the gap between abstract algorithmic logic and hardware-level execution. You won't just be assisting, you will be building the backbone of our ultra-low-latency ecosystem. It’s an incredible opportunity to own every aspect of the development process, from ideation to implementation, helping create solutions for complex trading challenges. The role will involve working in close collaboration with software engineers from our core platform to develop a dynamic, well-architected system that delivers a measurable impact.

Over the course of your career at Arctic Lake, you might touch anything from raw Ethernet frame parsing and TCP/IP stack implementation at the network layer, to PCIe bus communication between the FPGA and host system, to high-level application logic like pre-trade risk checks and order management. You could go deep into hardware-software co-design on one project, then shift to building and verifying SystemVerilog modules with Python-based cocotb testbenches on the next!

A Day at Arctic Lake

We are big believers in the power of being in the room. Learning by osmosis and creative serendipity aren't optional for us. Sometimes we are loud and collaborative; sometimes we are heads-down and quiet. We value creativity and humility just as much as raw IQ, which means we have built a genuinely good group of people.

From day one, you are a core member of the engineering team. Here is what your role will look like:

• Contributing to the design and verification of the FPGA project
• Improving the implementation flow of FPGA design
• Writing RTL code for order routing and risk checks
• Working with a diverse tech stack to build low-latency systems (eg. SystemVerilog, Java, C, Python, etc.)
• Collaborating with software engineers to integrate FPGA systems into Arctic Lake's wider trading infrastructure
• Supporting ongoing research and development projects aimed at advancing FPGA capabilities as Arctic Lake grows

Who This Is For

If you value depth over brand names, if you want real responsibility rather than tickets in a queue, and if you're energised by a culture of constant iteration and active experimentation, this will suit you. We prioritise curiosity and learning velocity over perfect credentials. The work is intellectually demanding, the pace varies depending on what the problem demands, and you'll be surrounded by people who are genuinely invested in the quality of what we build.

Skills And Requirements

• The mindset: You are a first-principles thinker who is deeply curious about how computing systems actually work. You possess a relentless desire to learn new engineering skills and thrive in collaborative, cross-functional teams where you can apply creative problem-solving to tackle complex technical challenges.
• Pursuing a degree in Electrical Engineering (EE), Electronic & Information Engineering (EIE), Computer Science (CS), or a related technical field
• Coursework or project experience in HDLs (e.g., SystemVerilog, Verilog, or VHDL)
• Proficiency in Java and Python, experience with C is desirable
• Familiarity with networking protocols (eg. TCP, IP)
• Experience in FPGA design and verification is a plus
• Familiarity with FPGA toolchains like Vivado and experience with Tcl scripting is a plus

If you don't meet every single requirement but possess the drive and the fundamental engineering talent, we still encourage you to apply. We hire for trajectory, not just a checklist.

The Package

• Salary: £60,000 annual salary
• Equity: We offer real equity options. You are building the company's value, so you should own a piece of it.
• Growth: We are doubling the team. This is a rare opportunity for rapid career progression that is not attainable at a stagnating giant.
• Perks: Learning & Development budget, pension contribution, free snacks/drinks, weekly team lunches, 25 days holiday (plus bank holidays).
• Travel: We anticipate opportunities for travel over the next 12 months, including our annual retreat abroad.