Lead Firmware Engineer

Department: Engineering

Location: Austin, Texas

Employment Type: FullTime

About Neurophos

The demand for new datacenters and AI compute is rapidly outpacing the planet's energy capacity. Digital solutions are hitting a power wall as we approach the physical limits of traditional silicon. Conquering this bottleneck isn’t about bigger chips or more of them; it means rethinking the fundamental architecture. The industry's current path isn’t going to meet the need, so we took a different approach.

Instead of traditional electronic circuits, we use silicon photonics and an active, programmable metasurface to perform matrix multiplications at the speed of light. Our optical cells are 10,000x smaller than traditional photonic components, enabling unprecedented density. By using photonics instead of electricity, our chips become more efficient as they scale. This architecture will deliver up to 100 times the energy efficiency of existing solutions while significantly improving performance for large-scale AI inference.

We’ve assembled a world-class team of industry veterans and recently raised a $110M Series A led by Gates Frontier. Participants include M12 (Microsoft’s Venture Fund), Carbon Direct Capital, Aramco Ventures, Bosch Ventures, Tectonic Ventures, Space Capital, and others. We have also been recognized on the EE Times Silicon 100 list for several consecutive years.

Join us and shape the future of computing!

Position Overview

We are seeking a talented Firmware Engineer to join our engineering team and spearhead our embedded software development. This role focuses on low-level firmware development for our novel LLM accelerator architecture. You will develop the firmware layer that directly controls our custom hybrid optical-electronic compute hardware, ensuring reliable operation and optimal performance.

Location

Austin, TX or San Mateo, CA. Full-time onsite position.

Key Responsibilities

Firmware Development

• Develop low-level firmware to orchestrate the execution of LLM workloads across hardware accelerator components

• Implement hardware abstraction layers (HAL) for our custom silicon

• Design and implement real-time control systems for optical components and thermal management

• Develop efficient memory management and data movement protocols

• Create debugging and profiling tools for firmware and hardware interaction

System Integration

• Collaborate with hardware engineers to define software-hardware interfaces

• Optimize end-to-end performance from the application layer to hardware execution

• Develop comprehensive testing and validation frameworks

• Create documentation and specifications for firmware interfaces

• Support customer integration and provide technical guidance

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, Electrical Engineering, or related field

• 10+ years of industry experience

• 5+ years of professional experience leading efforts for firmware engineering, embedded systems, or low-level systems programming

• Expert-level proficiency in embedded C++ (essential), Python for tooling and automation

• Strong experience with embedded systems programming and hardware interfaces

• Deep understanding of computer architecture, memory hierarchies, and parallel computing concepts

• Experience with hardware communication protocols and register-level programming.

Preferred Skills

• Master’s degree in CS/EE (or related) with expertise in high-performance, low-latency system design, including power and thermal optimization.

• Deep knowledge of embedded processor architectures (ARM, RISC-V), high-speed interfaces (AXI, PCIe, AMBA), and the ability to read RTL for HW/SW co-design.

• Experience building adaptive, multi-node, and multi-processor systems using bare metal, RTOS (Zephyr, FreeRTOS), and shared memory IPC.

• Familiarity with LLM architectures and hands-on experience programming AI/ML accelerators (GPUs, TPUs, FPGAs).

• Proficiency in virtual platforms/simulators, cross-compiler toolchains, Docker, and modern agentic AI coding workflows.

• Proven ability to manage OTA update systems and debug complex parallel/asynchronous programs.

Technical Skills

• Languages: Embedded C++ (essential), Python, Assembly

• Bus Protocols: AXI, AMBA, PCIe, DDR, high-speed serial protocols

• Embedded Processors: ARM Cortex-M/A, RISC-V, or similar; associated toolchains and debugging

• Embedded Platforms: Bare metal programming, FreeRTOS, Zephyr, or similar RTOS

• RTL & Verification: Verilog/SystemVerilog (reading comprehension), ModelSim, Questasim, or similar simulation tools

• Hardware Interfaces: Register-level programming, memory-mapped I/O, DMA

• Distributed Embedded: Inter-node communication, message passing, distributed state management

• Testing & QA: Unit testing frameworks, hardware-in-the-loop testing, integration testing

• CI/CD: Jenkins, GitHub Actions, GitLab CI, or similar systems

• Development Tools: CMake, Git, Docker

• Debugging Tools: GDB, JTAG debuggers, logic analyzers, oscilloscopes, hardware protocol analyzers

• Operating Systems: Linux (user-space tooling), embedded RTOS internals

Technical Environment

• Languages: Embedded C++ (primary), Python for tooling, Assembly for low-level optimization

• Hardware Tools: JTAG debuggers, logic analyzers, oscilloscopes, protocol analyzers

• Simulation: RTL simulators for hardware-software co-verification

• Testing: Hardware-in-the-loop testing, automated regression suites, CI pipelines

• Focus Areas: Firmware development, HAL implementation, hardware-software co-design

What We Offer

This is an opportunity to play a pivotal role in an innovative startup redefining the future of AI hardware. Work on a game-changing technology at the intersection of photonics and AI as part of a collaborative and brilliant team. You’ll contribute to a platform that redefines computational performance and accelerates the future of artificial intelligence. Come help us bring this transformative technology to the world.

Benefits

Join a team that invests in your future and your well-being. At Neurophos, we offer:

• 100% coverage of base health plan premiums for you and your dependents, plus HSA contributions.

• Unlimited PTO. No rigid vacation banks, just a focus on delivery.

• 401(k) matching and stock option opportunities to ensure our success is your success.

• Full suite of voluntary benefits, including Dental, Vision, Life, Hospital, Critical Illness, and Accident insurance.

• Personalized Benefits. Choose the plans that fit your life and take the cash back for those that don’t.