Lead Device Software Engineer

ConnectDER•Philadelphia, PA

21h•$155,000 - $175,000•Hybrid

About The Position

ConnectDER is seeking a Lead Device Software Engineer to join their team. This is a hands-on technical lead role responsible for the end-to-end ownership of the device software system. The role involves defining the architecture, breaking down work, and driving iterative delivery, while also writing production code and delegating tasks. The engineer will be responsible for the IslandDER digital interface, which complies with a new device-to-device communication standard for secure integration with home batteries and V2H solutions. The software monitors voltage and current, drives relays, performs safety checks, and communicates securely with third-party devices and the ConnectDER cloud. The device software is divided into four subsystems: Data Acquisition, Control, Communication, and Integration.

Requirements

Bachelor's degree in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, or Computer Science, with 7+ years in firmware engineering and a track record of shipping new products at scale.
Rigorous system design and documentation: you bring an exacting commitment to clear, thorough technical documentation and design diagrams, and the discipline to drive a complex safety certification (e.g., IEC 61508 / IEC 60730 / UL 1998) to completion.
Technical leadership: you've led the technical direction of a project. You architect the approach, partition it into workstreams for others, and still ship code yourself.
Embedded mastery: expert in C, C++, and/or Rust, with deep experience debugging embedded systems via oscilloscopes, logic analyzers, and JTAG/SWD.
Deep bare-metal/RTOS firmware experience on modern 32-bit microcontrollers, including low-level architecture and multi-core memory optimization. (ARM Cortex-M or similar.)
AI-assisted development with ownership: sophisticated use of AI coding agents paired with full ownership; you can explain every significant decision you ship.
A bias for fast iteration and judgment to size effort to business value, with the communication skills to explain complex requirements to diverse stakeholders.

Nice To Haves

Master's degree in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, or Computer Science
Prior experience taking safety-critical software through NRTL certification.
Matter/Thread device commissioning (SPAKE2+/PASE, setup-code or QR pairing).
Protocols & build: I2C, UART, SPI, CAN/CAN-FD, and Ethernet; build systems (Make, CMake); test automation and CI/CD.
Embedded TCP/IP networking (e.g., lwIP); experience implementing WireGuard or similar secure tunnels on a real-time embedded platform
Reverse-engineering CAN protocols or developing custom evaluation tools.
Experience configuring and using an RTOS for multi-threaded, timing-critical applications across metrology, safety, and communications.
Experience with PX5 or ThreadX.
Experience designing or operating a code-signing / PKI system for firmware (key custody, signing pipeline, secure boot verification, key rotation and revocation).
Familiarity with relevant standards, e.g., UL 1741/IEEE 1547, UL 3141, UL 2900 (cybersecurity), and ANSI C12.1 (metering).

Responsibilities

Own the overall device software architecture.
Break complex requirements into well-scoped workstreams, delegate with clean interfaces, and guide the team while staying hands-on where it matters.
Architect and implement the safety-critical software, scoping the safety boundary tightly and owning the FMEA, safety case, and NRTL certification.
Design and implement revenue-grade metering systems, including data acquisition, signal processing, and calibration.
Partner with electrical engineering — co-defining requirements, driving board bring-up, debugging across the boundary, and influencing hardware design for testability and safety.
Own the secure firmware-update path, including secure boot, code signing, and the key-management system behind it.
Keep a modern CI/CD pipeline and testable code and take systems from prototype to mass production.