Embedded Software Engineer II

FORT Robotics•Philadelphia, PA

16d•$125,000 - $150,000

About The Position

As an Embedded Software Engineer II, you will own specific components of our embedded stack, working close to the hardware on the real-time firmware that our safety devices depend on. Most of your time will be spent in RTOS environments (Zephyr and FreeRTOS) and on bare-metal targets, architecting safety-critical systems where reliability is a hard requirement. You will also work with our Embedded Linux platforms where the two worlds meet, so you will be comfortable moving between constrained real-time targets and richer application environments.

Requirements

3-5 years of hands-on embedded software development, with a substantial portion on RTOS or bare-metal targets.
Strong proficiency in C, along with working proficiency in C++.
Solid production experience with an RTOS such as Zephyr, FreeRTOS, ThreadX, or similar, including scheduling, synchronization primitives, and interrupt-driven design.
Comfort working directly with MCU peripherals, datasheets, reference manuals, linker scripts, and startup code.
Familiarity with Embedded Linux user-space development, sufficient to integrate and debug across the RTOS and Linux boundary.
Familiarity with IP networking protocols and standard interfaces (UART, SPI, I2C, USB, CAN).
Experience with Python for scripting/automation and familiarity with CI/CD workflows.
Comfort using oscilloscopes, logic analyzers, JTAG, and GDB to troubleshoot hard-to-find bugs.
B.S. in Computer Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Computer Science, or equivalent experience.

Nice To Haves

Experience with Zephyr specifically, including devicetree, Kconfig, and west-based workflows.
Experience with wireless stacks (BLE, ISM, Wi-Fi) on constrained devices.
Background in Functional Safety (FuSa) or working in regulated industries (Medical, Automotive, Aerospace).
Low-level Linux knowledge of Board Support Packages (BSP) and device drivers.
Familiarity with static analysis, MISRA C, or other coding standards used in safety-critical development.

Responsibilities

Design and implement robust C/C++ firmware for safety-critical embedded devices.
Architect and implement RTOS-based firmware on Zephyr and FreeRTOS, including task and scheduling design, ISR handling, inter-task communication, memory and stack budgeting, and deterministic timing analysis.
Write low-level peripheral drivers and board support code, and bring up new silicon from reset vector through to a running application.
Interface RTOS devices with our Embedded Linux user-space applications, ensuring reliable communication and consistent behavior across the product.
Maintain and improve CI/CD pipelines (GitLab) to automate testing, including on-target and hardware-in-the-loop test execution.
Bring up new hardware, debug complex issues using JTAG/GDB, and optimize for latency, power, and memory footprint.
Collaborate with the safety team to ensure code adheres to rigorous standards (IEC 61508) while maintaining development velocity.