Firmware Architect & Subsystem Technical Leader, Acacia

Cisco•Maynard, MA

3d•Hybrid

About The Position

Acacia, part of Cisco, develops high-speed coherent optical transceivers and pluggable optical interconnects used in cloud, telecommunications, data center, high-performance computing, and deep-space communications applications. Its products include coherent optical solutions and PAM4 DSP platforms. As an Embedded Software Engineering Technical Leader, you will serve as a principal firmware architect guiding embedded CPU software architecture for configuring, managing, and optimizing transceiver subsystems and future system-on-chip architectures. You will lead the architecture, design, and implementation of reliable, low-latency embedded firmware for multicore microcontrollers, and collaborate with ASIC, DSP, Optical, and Hardware Engineering architects on hardware/software interfaces and subsystem configuration. You will also establish firmware engineering standards, mentor engineers, and drive technical alignment from system modeling through low-level implementation. The position is based in Maynard, Massachusetts. It requires 100% onsite work during the initial one-year onboarding period, with hybrid flexibility available thereafter.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering, Electronics Engineering, Computer Engineering, Computer Science, or a related field.
12+ years of professional experience.
10+ years of low-level embedded C and C++ programming for resource-constrained hardware environments.
8+ years architecting and developing real-time embedded firmware on bare-metal systems and RTOS platforms such as VxWorks, FreeRTOS, or ThreadX.
Experience developing firmware for ARM processors or microcontrollers, including Cortex-M or Cortex-R cores.
Experience with BSPs, device drivers, and hardware peripheral interfaces such as I2C, SPI, UART, and MDIO.
Ability to work 100% onsite in Maynard, MA during the initial one-year onboarding period; hybrid flexibility is available thereafter.

Nice To Haves

Firmware architecture experience for optical transceivers, high-speed mixed-signal ICs, photonics, or telecommunications transmission hardware.
Experience developing control-plane software, state machines, and multiprocessor or multithreaded communication protocols.
Successful leadership of firmware engineering projects and collaboration across ASIC design, DSP modeling, Hardware, and SQA teams.
Proficiency with version control and project tools such as Git, Jira, and Perforce, and automation scripting with Python or Shell.
Experience in semiconductor or hardware environments, or engagement with optical industry standards bodies such as OIF or IEEE.

Responsibilities

Lead end-to-end architecture, design, and implementation of high-reliability, low-latency embedded firmware for multicore microcontrollers.
Guide embedded CPU software architecture for configuring, managing, and optimizing transceiver subsystems and future system-on-chip architectures.
Partner with ASIC, DSP, Optical, and Hardware Engineering architects to co-design hardware/software interfaces, configure optical subsystems, and resolve hardware-software boundary challenges.
Architect multithreaded control-plane firmware, Board Support Packages, device drivers, and real-time state machines on bare-metal and RTOS platforms.
Establish firmware engineering standards and mentor senior and intermediate engineers.
Drive multifunctional technical alignment from high-level system modeling to low-level register and bit-level implementation.
Provide technical direction and support the growth of the engineering organization.

Benefits

Medical insurance
Dental insurance
Vision insurance
401(k) plan with Cisco matching contribution
Paid parental leave
Short- and long-term disability coverage
Basic life insurance
Paid holidays
Floating holiday for non-exempt employees
Paid day off for employee’s birthday
Paid year-end holiday shutdown
Personal wellness days
Vacation time or flexible vacation time off, depending on employee classification
Sick time off
Additional paid time away may be requested for critical or emergency family issues
Optional paid volunteer days
Annual bonuses for eligible non-sales employees
Potential Cisco restricted stock unit grants