Manager, Embedded Firmware Architecture

SharkNinja•Needham, MA

11h•$166,000 - $180,000•Onsite

About The Position

The Manager of Embedded Firmware Architecture leads the platform and architecture-implementation team within SharkNinja's embedded firmware organization, sitting as a peer to the Embedded Firmware Delivery manager and reporting to the Director, Embedded Firmware. Where the Embedded Firmware Delivery manager owns design implementation and feature delivery, this role owns the architecture side: the reference implementations, hardware abstraction, and platform standards that every embedded firmware program builds against. This is a working leadership role. The Manager carries the technical depth to define interface contracts, HAL boundaries, and platform selection criteria, and to review code against them, while leading a team of Senior Embedded Firmware Developers who implement that architecture. The role holds the technical standard applied to internal developers and external partners alike.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree in Computer Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Computer Science, or related discipline required.
8+ years of embedded software and firmware engineering experience.
2+ years leading or formally mentoring embedded engineering teams; first-time people leaders with strong technical depth will be considered.
Demonstrated experience defining architecture executed by internal developers and external partners, and holding standards against outsourced development.
Proven track record establishing CI/CD, static analysis, and automated test infrastructure for embedded programs.
Demonstrated hands-on delivery of production firmware for consumer electronics, home appliances, robotics, or related high-volume industries.
Embedded firmware architecture, HAL/API design, and platform reuse.
Real-Time Operating Systems (RTOS).
OTA and bootloader software update architecture.
Build systems and toolchains (gcc, CMake, headless builds), Git-based source control, static analysis.
Test automation frameworks and hardware-in-the-loop validation.
Requirements definition, design review, and acceptance criteria for outsourced development.
Hardware-software integration and product bring-up.
Technology Leadership
Standards and Governance Discipline
Team Building and Coaching
Vendor and Partner Technical Management
Collaboration Across Sites

Responsibilities

Lead, hire, and develop the architecture-focused Senior Embedded Firmware Developers within the US embedded firmware team.
Conduct code review, technical direction, and design guidance for the team; maintain hands-on depth to make credible architecture decisions.
Manage workload allocation and capacity for platform and reference-implementation work across concurrent programs.
Own firmware architecture, interface definitions, and hardware abstraction (HAL/API) standards for the US embedded firmware organization.
Establish architectural standards for real-time operating systems, device intelligence, and edge processing.
Drive technical decisions on microcontroller and processor architecture in partnership with Hardware Engineering.
Maximize reuse of proven internal code, vendor SDKs, and reference designs to meet speed-to-market demands; reserve in-house development for durable differentiation, safety, and IP.
Translate architecture into clear, enforceable requirements that development partners execute against without interpretation.
Define and maintain the engineering standards applied to internal developers and third-party suppliers alike — source control, build systems, branch and merge strategy, and release requirements.
Contribute to the technical requirements embedded in supplier agreements, including the pre-production reproducibility deliverables: source, toolchain, and signed build manifest sufficient to independently rebuild shipping binaries.
Establish design review and gating checkpoints that partner deliverables clear before integration.
Partner with Systems Engineering and NPD to define product operation, key components, and critical firmware behavior at design time, closing hardware/software integration gaps before they surface at integration.
Own the embedded test automation framework: CI pipeline design, static analysis tooling, and the test-harness infrastructure that makes regression testing repeatable across categories.
Own embedded build integration, headless build requirements, and per-commit enforcement of code quality across internal and supplier repositories.
Build the mechanism Quality gates against — this function builds the scaffolding; acceptance criteria and gate authority remain with Embedded QA & Governance.
Partner with the Embedded Firmware Delivery manager to ensure delivery teams build against current architecture and standards.
Partner with other global firmware leadership on programs spanning multiple sites and on shared platform work.
Serve as a technical voice in partner capability assessment and consolidation decisions.