Principal Embedded Engineer

Wavelynx • Broomfield, CO

1d • $190,000 - $225,000 • Hybrid

About The Position

Wavelynx makes access control readers — the hardware and firmware that decide whether a door opens. We’re a PE-backed company scaling fast, and we’re building the engineering team that will take us there. This role is for a senior embedded / firmware engineer who wants to own hard problems in a constrained environment and build things that work reliably in the real world.

You’ll be working on Zephyr RTOS-based firmware for our APEX reader platform — nRF5340 dual-core, BLE, NFC/HF, LF prox, OSDP, and the full stack that sits on top of it. The problems are real: sub-millisecond timing, thread scheduling, protocol compliance, secure boot, power budgets, and manufacturing at volume. If you’ve spent time wondering why a GPIO edge got dropped or whether the UART overflowed, you’ll fit in.

Requirements

• A degree in Electrical Engineering or Computer Engineering is strongly preferred.
• Real RTOS experience at the thread and scheduler level — Zephyr or FreeRTOS. Not just the API surface. You should understand priority inversion, preemption, and why getting that wrong causes problems that are very hard to find.
• Protocol experience at the driver level. SPI, I2C, UART, BLE — we’re not looking for someone who used a library. We want someone who has read the datasheet, written the driver, and debugged it with a logic analyzer when it didn’t work.
• High-volume manufacturing background. If you’ve had to think about production test coverage, manufacturing calibration, firmware provisioning at scale, or what happens when a unit comes back from the field, that experience matters here.
• Performance and reliability are hard requirements, not a goal. Experience in storage devices, medical devices, industrial controls, or automotive translates well.
• Security fundamentals. Experience with secure boot, firmware signing, key management, or TrustZone is a plus and will become more relevant as we grow.
• FPGA programming experience. Experience designing and programming FPGAs using VHDL or Verilog is a strong plus. If you understand how hardware logic intersects with firmware and have worked at that boundary, that background is directly relevant to what we build.
• Ability to debug with limited tools. A UART and a logic analyzer should be enough. If you’ve only worked in environments with a full debug suite and a large support team, this role will be a stretch.
• You can write technical documentation. Specs, design notes, comments that explain the why, not just the what.
• Languages: C (primary), Python, C++
• RTOS / Platforms: Zephyr, FreeRTOS, ARM Cortex-M / Cortex-A
• Hardware Description Languages: VHDL, Verilog
• Protocols: UART, SPI, I2C, BLE, NFC/HF, LF, OSDP
• Debug Tools: Logic analyzers, oscilloscopes, JTAG/SWD debuggers, GDB
• Version Control: Git

Nice To Haves

• Security fundamentals. Experience with secure boot, firmware signing, key management, or TrustZone is a plus and will become more relevant as we grow.
• FPGA programming experience. Experience designing and programming FPGAs using VHDL or Verilog is a strong plus. If you understand how hardware logic intersects with firmware and have worked at that boundary, that background is directly relevant to what we build.

Responsibilities

• Own features from requirements through production — driver development, subsystem design, integration, debugging, and validation.
• Write firmware that goes into real products and stays in them for years.
• Work closely with hardware, software, and manufacturing, which means you need to communicate clearly and write specs that other people can actually use.
• Help build the validation infrastructure that gives us confidence before a release ships.

Benefits

• Eligibility for an annual company bonus program and merit increases.
• 401(k) program with 100% immediate vesting and up to a 6% match.
• Company-sponsored medical, dental, and vision insurance.
• HSA-eligible plans available.
• Substantial opportunities for cross-collaboration and engineering career advancement.
• $2,500 educational grant opportunity.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Senior
• Education Level: Associate degree