EE Firmware and Applications Engineer

Cohu • San Diego, CA

1d

About The Position

Acts as the technical bridge between a sales team and its customers, ensuring products and/or software are effectively customized, installed, and supported. Analyze client needs, provide pre/post-sales technical support, conduct product demonstrations, and create custom technical solutions. Evaluate feasibility and risk of new concepts using first-principles physics and empirical modeling. Deliver new and/or update electrical firmware implementing control solutions from pre/post customer interactions and applications involvement. Development, integration and lifecycle support of complex electrical control systems with a strong focus on firmware-related system integration and thermal system concepts to be integrated into an electro-mechanical robotic system.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree in computer engineering, electrical engineering, control engineering or a related field.
• Minimum of 5 years of experience in the application support and firmware development of complex mechatronic systems, ideally in semiconductor backend equipment.
• Minimum of 5 years as a direct engineer in a discipline, preferably firmware development.
• Strong proficiency in C and C++.
• Strong understanding of microcontroller architecture, memory management, and digital circuit design.
• Experience with technical standards and industrial development processes.
• Experience in bootloader development and using GIT/SVN.
• Experience with communication protocols like UART, SPI, I2C, CAN, EtherCAT.
• Strong analytical and debugging skills to resolve complex technical challenges.
• Understanding and/or working experience with thermal systems, motion control, control systems.
• Willingness to travel as required for projects and customer support.
• Excellent English communication skills.

Nice To Haves

• MSc, MEng, etc. desired
• EtherCAT experience is a plus.
• German and/or French is a plus.

Responsibilities

• Present technical solutions and resolve system-level issues in collaboration with customers and stakeholders.
• Collaborate with hardware engineers to interpret schematics, test prototypes, and validate hardware-software interaction.
• Develop firmware for microcontrollers (e.g., ARM Cortex-M) in C/C++, focusing on bare-metal or RTOS environments.
• Debug system issues using logic analyzers, oscilloscopes, and JTAG tools to troubleshoot code.
• Maintain technical documentation, including design specifications and code comments.
• Create low-level drivers for hardware peripherals (GPIOs, ADCs, Timers) and communication interfaces (CAN, USB, Bluetooth, IoT protocols).
• Acting as a technical interface to internal departments as well as customers and external partners.
• Definition, alignment, and implementation of system requirements in close collaboration with hardware and mechanical engineering teams.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Senior