Field Applications Engineer (FAE)

About the role

Altera is seeking a highly skilled Field Applications Engineer (FAE) to support customers adopting our industry‑leading FPGA, SoC, and embedded solutions.

In this role, you will partner closely with customers, sales teams, and product engineering to drive successful design‑ins, accelerate time‑to‑market, and ensure customers realize the full value of Altera’s technology portfolio.

This is a customer‑facing, technically deep role ideal for engineers who enjoy solving complex system‑level challenges and influencing next‑generation semiconductor designs.

Key Responsibilities

Customer Engagement & Technical Leadership

• Serve as the primary technical interface for customers evaluating and designing with Altera FPGAs, SoCs, IP, and software tools.
• Understand customer architectures, performance requirements, and design constraints to recommend optimal device families, IP blocks, and development flows.
• Deliver technical presentations, hands‑on workshops, and product demonstrations tailored to customer needs.
• Guide customers through feasibility analysis, device selection, and early‑stage design decisions.

Design‑In Support & Problem Solving

• Support customers through the full design cycle — from concept and RTL development to timing closure, power optimization, and board bring‑up.
• Troubleshoot complex issues involving FPGA logic, embedded processors, high‑speed interfaces, memory subsystems, and power architectures.
• Develop reference designs, application notes, and best‑practice guides to accelerate customer success.
• Collaborate with internal engineering teams to reproduce issues, validate fixes, and influence roadmap priorities.

Cross‑Functional Collaboration

• Partner with sales teams to support opportunity qualification, competitive positioning, and technical strategy.
• Provide structured feedback to product management and engineering on customer requirements, emerging use cases, and competitive trends.
• Represent Altera at customer meetings, industry events, and technical conferences.

Technical Expertise & Thought Leadership

• Maintain deep knowledge of Altera’s FPGA architectures, Quartus toolchain, IP portfolio, and embedded software ecosystem.
• Stay current on industry trends in AI/ML acceleration, high‑performance compute, networking, automotive, and industrial applications.
• Mentor internal teams and contribute to technical enablement programs.

Salary Range

The compensation below is reflective of a sales role that includes a salary + incentive. Our compensation reflects the cost of labor within the US market. Actual compensation may vary based on a number of factors including job location, job-related knowledge, skills, experiences, trainings, etc.

$187K - $270.7K USD

We use artificial intelligence to screen, assess, or select applicants for the position. Applicants must be eligible for any required U.S. export authorizations.

Required Qualifications

• Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, Computer Science, or related field. - 10+ years of experience in FPGA design, digital logic design, embedded systems, or applications engineering.
• Strong proficiency in RTL (Verilog/VHDL), timing analysis, synthesis, and FPGA implementation flows.
• Experience with high‑speed interfaces (PCIe, DDR, Ethernet), embedded processors, or board‑level design.
• Excellent communication, presentation, and customer‑facing skills.
• Ability to travel to customer sites as needed.

Preferred Qualifications

• Hands‑on experience with Altera/Intel Quartus, Platform Designer, and associated IP.
• Familiarity with AI/ML acceleration, DSP, or hardware/software co‑design.
• Experience supporting enterprise customers or large‑scale deployments.
• Strong debugging skills using logic analyzers, oscilloscopes, and embedded debug tools.
• Job Type: Regular
• Shift: Shift 1 (United States of America)
• Primary Location: San Jose, California, United States