Full-Time
Aerospace & Defense Product Program Manager
Altera Corporation
Manufactures FPGA, SoC programmable logic chips
Compensation Overview
$159.7k - $231k/yr
San Jose, CA, USA
In Person
 Business & Strategy (1) |
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- Bachelor’s degree in Engineering, Computer Science, or a related technical field (or equivalent experience)
- 10+ years of experience as a Product Program Manager, Technical Program Manager, or equivalent role managing complex hardware and software programs
- Experience delivering semiconductor, FPGA, ASIC, SoC, or embedded system products
- Proven track record of managing cross-functional, multi-discipline teams in matrixed organizations
- Experience working with Aerospace & Defense customers or programs, including long lifecycle, high-reliability, or regulated environments
- Strong understanding of product development lifecycles, from concept and architecture through production and sustaining
- Excellent program management skills, including schedule management, risk mitigation, and executive communication
- Strong written and verbal communication skills with the ability to present to senior leadership and external customers
- Own and drive end-to-end product program execution for Altera FPGA and platform offerings targeting Aerospace & Defense customers
- Lead cross-functional program teams including engineering, product management, quality, supply chain, manufacturing, sales, and field applications
- Develop and manage integrated program plans, schedules, risk registers, dependencies, and milestones across multiple product lines
- Serve as the primary program interface for internal stakeholders and key A&D customers, ensuring alignment on deliverables, timelines, and expectations
- Manage program risk, change control, and issue resolution, proactively identifying mitigation strategies to maintain schedule and quality
- Ensure compliance with A&D-specific requirements, including long lifecycle support, product change notifications (PCNs), export control (ITAR/EAR), reliability, and quality standards
- Coordinate new product introductions (NPI), product revisions, and sustaining engineering programs across silicon, software, tools, and documentation
- Partner with product management to align program execution with market requirements, customer roadmaps, and revenue goals
- Drive executive-level program reviews, providing clear communication on status, risks, tradeoffs, and decisions
- Support customer engagements, escalations, and program commitments for strategic A&D accounts
- Direct experience with FPGA-based platforms, design flows, or programmable logic ecosystems
- Familiarity with A&D compliance frameworks such as DO-254, MIL-STD, AS9100, ITAR/EAR, or similar standards
- Experience supporting long-term product support models (10–20+ year lifecycles)
- Background working with government, prime contractors, or Tier-1 aerospace and defense customers
- MBA or advanced degree in Engineering, Management, or a related field
- Experience managing globally distributed engineering and operations teams
- Strong business acumen with the ability to balance technical, schedule, cost, and customer tradeoffs
Altera Corporation designs and manufactures programmable logic devices, including Field-Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs) and System-on-Chips (SoCs), and provides the software tools needed to configure them. Customers use these chips to tailor hardware after manufacture for specific applications, giving faster time-to-market and optimized performance. The company differentiates itself through a broad range of target markets (automotive, communications, aerospace) and by offering both programmable hardware and associated design software licensing. Its goal is to deliver high-performance, adaptable processing solutions for embedded systems, AI, cloud, and edge computing.
Company Size
N/A
Company Stage
Acquired
Total Funding
$21.2B
Headquarters
San Jose, California
Founded
1983
Simplify's Take
What believers are saying
- Mercury Systems and VadaTech broaden Altera's defense FPGA ecosystem around Agilex 9.[1]
- DIU's RAZORBAC program opens optical networking opportunities across space and ground communications.[1]
- Arm collaboration expands Altera's addressable market in AI data-center acceleration.[1]
What critics are saying
- AMD Xilinx pressures Altera with a broader adaptive SoC portfolio and stronger ecosystem.
- Defense wins depend on program milestones; delays at Mercury, VadaTech, or DIU hurt revenue.
- GPU and ASIC alternatives threaten FPGA AI adoption if deterministic inference lacks clear value.
What makes Altera Corporation unique
- Altera is the largest pure-play FPGA provider, focused exclusively on programmable logic.[1]
- Its FPGA AI Suite 26.1.1 targets deterministic, low-latency edge AI inference.[1][3]
- Agilex 9 Direct RF FPGAs integrate RF, compute, and transceivers for defense systems.[1]
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Company News
Altera expands Agilex 9 FPGA ecosystem for defense applications. Altera Corporation, a provider of field-programmable gate array (FPGA) solutions, has announced new collaborations with Mercury Systems (NASDAQ: MRCY) and VadaTech aimed at expanding the ecosystem for its Agilex 9 Direct RF Series FPGAs. The initiative is designed to support the development of next-generation defense platforms through commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) solutions based on open architecture standards. The partnerships focus on combining Altera's Agilex 9 medium-band Direct RF FPGAs with industry-standard platforms, including SOSA-aligned OpenVPX systems. According to the companies, the approach is intended to help defense customers reduce integration complexity, accelerate deployment timelines, and enhance flexibility for software-defined radio frequency (RF) applications. As defense systems increasingly require real-time processing of large volumes of RF data, demand is growing for hardware platforms capable of delivering higher performance while reducing size, weight, power, and cost (SWaP). Altera said its Agilex 9 Direct RF Series FPGAs address these requirements by integrating RF functionality, computing resources, and high-speed transceivers within a single programmable architecture. The company noted that the medium-band Direct RF technology provides a balance of bandwidth, power efficiency, and processing performance suited for a range of defense applications, including adaptive radar systems, cognitive electronic warfare, and secure software-defined communications. Through the expanded ecosystem, customers will have access to field-proven platforms designed to improve interoperability and adaptability while supporting evolving mission requirements. The use of open architectures is also expected to facilitate system integration and reduce development risks for defense contractors and government agencies. Craig Goodwin, Senior Director of Mercury's Mixed Signal line of business, said the integration of medium-band converters into a high-performance FPGA enables significant SWaP advantages for edge-based processing applications. He noted that Altera's hardware and software development tools helped accelerate product evaluation and solution design. According to Goodwin, Mercury selected the Agilex 9 medium-band Direct RF FPGA because of its data conversion capabilities and processing resources, which he said can provide up to a tenfold SWaP advantage compared with alternative FPGA solutions for certain RF applications. VadaTech CEO Saeed Karamooz emphasized the benefits of standards-based VPX solutions, stating that Agilex 9 Direct RF Series FPGAs support seamless integration within larger defense system architectures while helping customers deploy advanced RF capabilities more quickly. John Sotir, General Manager of Altera's Military, Aerospace, and Government business unit, said modern defense platforms must process larger volumes of data across wider bandwidths while maintaining flexibility. He added that the collaborations with Mercury Systems and VadaTech reflect Altera's ongoing efforts to advance Direct RF technology and support more agile, scalable, and software-defined defense systems.
ELSYS Design renews its participation in the Altera Solution Acceleration Partner Program. Published on 05/26/2026, 3:02 PM ELSYS Design renews its engagement within the Altera Solution Acceleration Partner (ASAP) Program as a Design Services Partner, reinforcing years of expertise on Altera FPGA and SoC FPGA technologies. This continued collaboration builds on a long history with Altera platforms and supports customers developing advanced programmable systems. ELSYS Design, a leading engineering company specialized in embedded electronic systems, is pleased to announce its participation in the Altera Solution Acceleration Partner Program (ASAP) as a Design Services Partner. ASAP brings together a worldwide ecosystem of engineering companies supporting customers developing advanced solutions on Altera FPGAs and SoC FPGAs. Through this partnership, ELSYS Design will collaborate closely with Altera's technical teams, gain access to program resources, and increase its visibility within Altera's engineering and commercial ecosystem. ELSYS Design and Altera have a long-standing collaboration, delivering proven FPGA and SoC FPGA-based innovations across a wide range of applications. Following its recent independence, Altera now operates as the industry's largest pure-play FPGA solutions provider. This partnership naturally extends a long-standing collaboration supported by ELSYS Design's proven experience on Altera FPGA devices and toolchains. "We have built strong experience on Altera FPGA technologies over the years, supporting many customer applications across different markets," said Pascal Barioulet, Chief Commercial Officer at ELSYS Design. "Renewing our partnership within the ASAP program strengthens this long-standing collaboration and allows us to bring even more value to customers who rely on these platforms for demanding embedded and real-time systems like AI data centers." As an ASAP Design Services Partner, ELSYS Design will: * Work closely with Altera's engineering and product teams. * Contribute to feasibility studies, PoCs, and advanced development projects. * Support customers with FPGA/SoC design, embedded software, and system integration. * Benefit from official visibility within the Altera partner ecosystem. "ELSYS Design has a long, proven track record of delivering complex FPGA and system-on-chip-based systems on Altera platforms, and we're pleased to continue this collaboration through our ASAP Program," said Mark Moran, Director of Dev Kits and Partners at Altera. "Their ability to support customers from early feasibility through advanced system development strengthens our partner ecosystem and helps accelerate innovation in demanding embedded and real-time applications, enabling customers to shape what's next." About ELSYS Design ELSYS Design is a leading engineering services company specializing in the design of embedded electronic systems, including SoC/ASIC/FPGA, electronic boards, embedded software, and systems engineering. Through its network of engineering sites across Europe and sales offices in the USA, ELSYS Design delivers tailored R&D solutions, leveraging its multi-sector expertise and flexible engagement models to accelerate clients' innovation. Founded and managed by engineers, ELSYS Design is a subsidiary of ADVANS Group. Where passion leads to excellence Press release published by Mongaboure Xavier Published on 05/26/2026, 3:02 PM on 24presse.com Mongaboure Xavier ADVANS GROUP www.advans-group.com/fr/ Contact Send mail to Mongaboure Xavier. Company: ADVANS GROUP Press contact. Mongaboure Xavier ADVANS GROUP
Altera, the world's largest pure-play FPGA solutions provider, has expanded its collaboration with Arm to deliver programmable solutions for AI data centres. The partnership combines Altera's data centre-optimised FPGA technology with the Arm AGI CPU, built on Arm Neoverse CSS V3, enabling low-latency, scalable compute platforms. The companies have collaborated for over 20 years on SoC FPGAs for embedded, industrial and communications markets. The expanded integration extends programmable acceleration into Arm-based AI data centre architectures. Altera's FPGAs are currently deployed in data centres for tasks including data pre-processing, networking and AI inference orchestration through PCIe accelerator cards, SmartNICs and DPUs. The collaboration aims to meet growing performance and flexibility requirements in AI data centre infrastructure.
Altera's 25GbE Holoscan Sensor Bridge demonstration, powered by Agilex 5 SoC FPGAs, has won Embedded Computing Design's Best-in-Show Award in the AI and machine learning category at Embedded World 2026. The technology enables ultra-low-latency sensor streaming for edge AI systems, combining multiple 4Kp60 sensor cameras with Holoscan Sensor Bridge IP to transfer data from camera interfaces to GPU-based AI platforms over 25Gb Ethernet. The solution demonstrates how FPGAs can accelerate data ingestion at the edge, where low latency and high throughput are critical for AI workloads. Altera is the only vendor offering FPGA-based Holoscan solutions scaling from 10–100GbE, alongside production-ready SmartNICs and DPUs supporting up to 400G for data centre and cloud deployments.
Altera 25G Holoscan Sensor Bridge demonstration wins Embedded Computing Design's Best-in-Show Award. High-performance Agilex 5 FPGA reference design showcases ultra-low-latency sensor streaming for edge AI systems. SAN JOSE, Calif., 2026-03-10 Altera, the world's largest pure-play FPGA solutions provider, today announced that its 25GbE Holoscan Sensor Bridge demonstration, powered by Agilex(R) 5 SoC FPGAs, received Embedded Computing Design's Best-in-Show Award in the AI & machine learning category. The award recognizes outstanding embedded systems and products on display at Embedded World 2026, with winners selected by the publication's editorial team based on design excellence, relative performance, and market impact. Altera's Agilex 5 Holoscan Sensor Bridge is a MIPI to 25Gb Ethernet System Reference Design, which demonstrates high-bandwidth sensor streaming over Ethernet for next-generation edge AI systems. The design combines multiple 4Kp60 sensor cameras with a new Quartus(R) Platform Designer component for Holoscan Sensor Bridge IP, enabling efficient transfer of sensor data from camera interfaces to GPU-based AI platforms over 25Gb Ethernet. The reference design highlights how FPGAs can accelerate data ingestion and movement at the edge, where ultra-low latency and high throughput are essential for AI workloads. FPGAs play a critical role in AI-attached architectures by handling sensor aggregation and real-time data pre-processing before data reaches the AI compute. Altera is the only vendor offering FPGA-based Holoscan solutions that scale from 10-100 GbE, along with a full line of production-ready SmartNICs and DPUs (up to 400G) supporting data center, cloud, and HPC deployments. "This recognition from Embedded Computing Design highlights the innovation behind Altera's FPGA-based sensor-to-Ethernet solutions," said Venkat Yadavalli, head of Altera's Business Management Group. "With Agilex 5 devices, developers gain the flexibility and deterministic performance needed to move massive sensor data streams to AI compute platforms with minimal latency. Our Holoscan Sensor Bridge reference design shows how programmable FPGA architectures can efficiently connect high-bandwidth sensors to edge AI systems, enabling new capabilities in robotics, autonomous systems, and other data-intensive edge applications." Altera's Agilex 5 FPGA and SoC families deliver industry-leading performance-per-watt for embedded and edge applications, supporting the latest LPDDR5 and DDR5 memory standards, high-speed serial transceivers, and post-quantum cryptography (PQC) secure boot for advanced system security. Designed for midrange applications requiring high performance and power efficiency, Agilex 5 devices combine programmable FPGA fabric with integrated processing, AI-optimized DSP blocks, and scalable connectivity to accelerate edge AI, industrial, and networking workloads. Visit Altera in Hall 5, Booth 5-329 at Embedded World to learn more. About Altera Altera is a leading supplier of programmable hardware, software, and development tools that empower designers of electronic systems to innovate, differentiate, and succeed in their markets. With a broad portfolio of industry-leading FPGAs, SoCs, and design solutions, Altera enables customers to achieve faster time-to-market and unmatched performance in applications spanning industrial automation, audio/video, robotics, aerospace, defense, data centers, telecommunications, edge AI and more. For more information, visit www.altera.com. Media Contacts: