Manager, Embedded Firmware Architecture

SharkNinja•Needham, MA

11d

About The Position

The Manager of Embedded Firmware Architecture leads the platform and architecture-implementation team within SharkNinja’s embedded firmware organization. This role is a peer to the Embedded Firmware Delivery Manager and reports to the Director, Embedded Firmware. It owns the reference implementations, hardware abstraction, and platform standards used across embedded firmware programs, while the Delivery Manager owns design implementation and feature delivery. This is a working leadership role requiring technical depth to define interface contracts, HAL boundaries, and platform selection criteria, and to review code against those standards. The Manager leads Senior Embedded Firmware Developers and establishes the technical standard for internal developers and external partners alike. The role owns firmware architecture, interface definitions, HAL/API standards, embedded test automation, build integration, and engineering standards. It works with Hardware Engineering, Systems Engineering, NPD, Embedded Firmware Delivery, global firmware leadership, suppliers, and partner teams to ensure architecture is implemented consistently and hardware/software integration risks are addressed early. The function builds the infrastructure and mechanisms used for quality gates; acceptance criteria and gate authority remain with Embedded QA & Governance.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree in Computer Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Computer Science, or a related discipline.
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.
Expertise in embedded firmware architecture, HAL/API design, and platform reuse.
Expertise in real-time operating systems (RTOS).
Expertise in OTA and bootloader software update architecture.
Expertise in build systems and toolchains, including gcc, CMake, and headless builds; Git-based source control; and static analysis.
Expertise in test automation frameworks and hardware-in-the-loop validation.
Expertise in requirements definition, design review, and acceptance criteria for outsourced development.
Expertise in hardware-software integration and product bring-up.
Leadership competencies in technology leadership, standards and governance discipline, team building and coaching, vendor and partner technical management, and collaboration across sites.

Responsibilities

Lead, hire, and develop architecture-focused Senior Embedded Firmware Developers within the US embedded firmware team.
Provide code reviews, technical direction, and design guidance while maintaining hands-on technical depth for 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, reserving in-house development for durable differentiation, safety, and IP.
Translate architecture into clear, enforceable requirements for development partners.
Define and maintain engineering standards for internal developers and third-party suppliers, including source control, build systems, branch and merge strategy, and release requirements.
Contribute technical requirements to supplier agreements, including pre-production source, toolchain, and signed build-manifest deliverables sufficient to independently rebuild shipping binaries.
Establish design review and gating checkpoints for partner deliverables 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 integration.
Own the embedded test automation framework, including CI pipeline design, static analysis tooling, and test-harness infrastructure for repeatable regression testing across categories.
Own embedded build integration, headless build requirements, and per-commit code-quality enforcement across internal and supplier repositories.
Build the scaffolding used by Quality gates; 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 global firmware leadership on programs spanning multiple sites and shared platform work.
Serve as a technical voice in partner capability assessment and consolidation decisions.