Principal DSP Software Engineer

MaxLinear • Carlsbad, CA

1d

About The Position

MaxLinear is seeking a Principal DSP Software Engineer to design, develop, validate, and optimize firmware for optical connectivity ASICs using PAM4 DSP technology, supporting AI scale-up and scale-out architectures. The role drives software-hardware co-design and pre-silicon software development, validation, and integration, and leads post-silicon bring-up, performance characterization, debugging, and optimization across hardware and software boundaries. It also ensures compliance with industry standards and interoperability requirements, including CMIS, OIF, and IEEE 802.3. The engineer collaborates with ASIC, Communications Systems, and Systems Engineering teams, works with customers and internal field engineering and product management teams to resolve deployment issues, and provides technical leadership and mentorship.

Requirements

• Strong understanding of digital signal processing concepts and implementation techniques.
• Proven experience architecting and delivering multiple DSP-centric embedded products from concept through production deployment.
• Strong software-hardware co-design experience and ability to drive architecture decisions across firmware and ASIC boundaries.
• Deep expertise in embedded firmware development using C and embedded operating systems (RTOS).
• Strong understanding of data structures, algorithms, and software design principles.
• Experience developing software for high-speed communication, networking, optical, or data center infrastructure products.
• Bachelor's degree in Electrical Engineering, Computer Science, or a related field plus 9 years of experience; or a master's degree plus 7 years of experience; or a Ph.D. plus 4 years of experience.

Responsibilities

• Drive the design, development, validation, and performance optimization of firmware for optical connectivity ASICs (PAM4 DSP) supporting AI scale-up and scale-out architectures.
• Define and drive software-hardware co-design strategies.
• Drive pre-silicon software development, validation, and integration activities.
• Lead post-silicon bring-up, performance characterization, debugging, and software optimization across hardware and software boundaries.
• Ensure compliance with evolving industry standards and interoperability requirements, including CMIS, OIF, IEEE 802.3, and related optical networking specifications.
• Collaborate with ASIC, Communications Systems, and Systems Engineering teams to deliver optimized end-to-end solutions.
• Partner with customers, field engineering teams, and product management to resolve challenging deployment issues.
• Mentor engineers and provide technical leadership through architecture, design, and code reviews.

Benefits

• Health care benefits
• 401k savings plan
• Employee Stock Purchase Plan (ESPP)
• Paid time off
• Annual discretionary bonus eligibility
• Stock-based compensation for some positions

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Principal