AccelerComm, a University of Southampton spinout, develops error correction and physical layer IP for 5G, 6G and satellite networks, running on more than 200 satellites. They're hiring a Principal Design Team Leader to lead a hardware design team and drive delivery of complex IP, based in Southampton on a hybrid basis. This ASIC role sits within the UK's semiconductor and satellite communications sector.
As the Principal Design Team Leader at AccelerComm, you will be working on 5G base stations on board satellites. This revolutionary technology is at the leading edge of non-terrestrial communications, and will underpin the next generation of mobile standards giving complete coverage to the globe. AccelerComm develop the baseband signal processing technology, using hardware acceleration to generate world-leading error resilience, capacity and power efficiency. The Principal Design Team Leader will take a leading role in shaping the technical roadmap for extending the power efficiency for the latest generation space-qualified devices, and then delivering this technology to our customers.
We are looking for a person with a proven track record of team leadership and delivering complex IP, who has a real interest in all aspects of the Intellectual Property development life cycle.
This is a hands-on role requiring exceptional team leadership skills alongside technical skills to drive the design, quality, and delivery of Layer 1 IP. This role will play a pivotal part in the growth of AccelerComm and our product portfolio
Key Responsibilities
- Provide strategic vision to inform technical decision-making and planning at a company level , working with colleagues from Algorithm, System Architecture and Software teams.
- Take responsibility for the successful and timely delivery of projects by providing technical leadership
- Provide managerial leadership to build knowledge and support the team development
- Work closely with the exec team to translate product requirements into hardware team deliverables
- Support discussions with customers during presales and product development
- Oversee the implementation of designs targeting both FPGA and ASIC using industry standard techniques, including the creation of UVM based testbenches
- Lead AccelerComm’s engineering methodology, processes, and design techniques, integrating AI where possible.
- Nurture professional growth of team members through regular mentoring, coaching, and feedback
Essential
- Track record of building and leading high performing collaborative teams
- Expert knowledge of RTL design (Verilog, SystemVerilog) for complex ASIC and FPGA products
- A strong skillset in delivery of digital designs for ASIC and FPGA
- Optimisation of timing and hardware resources for high throughput data or signal processing applications. Experience in power management techniques, synthesis and timing analysis
- Expert user of EDA tools for simulation and synthesis
- Knowledge and appreciation of project management methodologies across the design lifecycle including agile and waterfall, requirements capture and traceability.
Desirable
- Knowledge of communications signal processing algorithms (such as error correction, equalisation, channel estimation, beamforming)
- Understanding of UVM verification techniques or practical experience using UVM for IP verification
- Experience with high speed interfaces on and off chip such as AMBA, PCI-E or JESD
- Understanding of using C++/SystemC for design modelling and integration
- Experience in Technology Readiness Models
- Understanding of system architecture of a multi-disciplinary team project
About AccelerComm
AccelerComm is a Southampton-based semiconductor IP company spun out of the University of Southampton's Electronics and Computer Science department in 2016 by Professor Rob Maunder and Dr Taihai Chen. The company commercialises forward error correction and channel coding algorithms for 5G, 6G, and satellite non-terrestrial networks, with products including high-performance LDPC and POLAR error correction IP. AccelerComm's technology powers over 200 production satellites currently in orbit, with customers including Vodafone, Intel, AMD, and National Instruments. The company raised a total of $52.8M, including a £21.5M Series B in 2023 led by ParkWalk, SwisscomVentures, and Hostplus, and a subsequent $15M round in 2025.
Stage: Series BSouthampton
View AccelerComm profile →