Senior Firmware Engineer

Location: Santa Clara, California

Department: External - Client Requirement

ABOUT THE ROLE

As Senior Firmware Engineer, you will be a key player in the architecture and the full lifecycle development of an AI platform system, including requirements, design, code, and test. In this role, you will be part of a team developing next generation AI/ML solutions using Client's AI Photonic Fabric Architecture. You will be responsible for developing production-grade firmware for Client's photonic fabric product lineup and developing firmware APIs for resource management and optimization. You will collaborate closely with hardware and software teams to implement the communication management software for different Photonic Fabric use cases.  

ESSENTIAL DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES

• Demonstrate best practices in software development and documentation to deliver high-quality software on tight schedules while meeting all requirements.
• Actively engage in code reviews, discussions to share knowledge, and improve code quality
• Participate in gathering technical requirements, contributing to firmware and software design specifications
• Provide support to both internal and external SW and HW development teams
• Provide guidance on test plans for lab characterization once design comes back from fab

QUALIFICATIONS

• Bachelor’s degree with 8+ years of experience, or Master’s degree with 6+ years of experience in Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, Information Technology or a related technical field.
• At least 5 years of hands-on experience in firmware or embedded software development.
• Deep proficiency in C (required) and/or C++ (highly desired) for embedded systems.
• Demonstrated experience with microcontroller architectures (e.g., ARM Cortex-M/R/A, ESP32, RISC-V) and their peripherals. You understand the nuances of clocking, interrupts, DMA, and memory-mapped registers.
• Proven ability to debug complex hardware/firmware issues on the bench using:

• In-circuit debuggers (JTAG/SWD) with GDB.
• Oscilloscopes: Experience reading signal waveforms, verifying timing, and identifying glitches.
• Logic Analyzers: For decoding digital bus traffic (SPI, I2C, UART).
• Multimeters/Power Supplies: For basic electrical troubleshooting.

• Experience in writing bare-metal drivers and working directly with device registers.
• Familiarity with version control systems (Git preferred) and bug tracking tools.
• Strong problem-solving skills with an investigative, "get to the bottom of it" mindset.
• Excellent communication skills, both written and verbal, for collaborating with hardware, QA, and software teams.