Principal Firmware Engineer – Digital ASIC
About The Position
As part of a team of specialists and engineers, the Principal Firmware Engineer serves as a hands-on technical leader responsible for the architecture, development, integration, and delivery of complex embedded firmware for custom digital ASICs in Blue Origin’s TeraWave satellite communications system. The role owns firmware development across the silicon lifecycle, from architecture and pre-silicon verification through post-silicon bring-up, system validation, production testing, and manufacturing. It calls for deep expertise in low-level embedded firmware, custom digital silicon, and hardware/software integration, as well as the ability to independently drive complex technical execution and deliver production-quality firmware. The engineer works closely with ASIC design, verification, hardware, communications systems, test, and manufacturing engineering teams to deliver firmware against program milestones. Firmware scope includes ROM code and runtime firmware for Digital Beamforming ASICs, covering functions such as beam pointing, analog calibration, FEIC management, SerDes link management, secure boot, telemetry, and sideband control. The role also establishes firmware methodologies, testing and release practices, and quality requirements, while providing technical leadership and mentoring alongside direct development work.
Requirements
- Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, Electrical Engineering, or a related technical discipline.
- 10+ years of experience in embedded firmware development, low-level software, or hardware/software systems development.
- Extensive hands-on experience developing embedded firmware in C, including bare-metal and resource-constrained environments.
- Experience architecting, developing, and delivering firmware for complex digital ASICs, SoCs, microcontrollers, or hardware accelerators.
- Strong understanding of embedded processor architectures, memory systems, interrupts, DMA, peripheral interfaces, and hardware register programming.
- Experience defining hardware/software interfaces and working closely with ASIC or FPGA design and verification teams.
- Experience developing firmware verification strategies, detailed test plans, and automated validation frameworks.
- Experience with pre-silicon firmware integration, hardware/software debugging, and post-silicon bring-up.
- Experience delivering firmware to silicon validation, system test, or manufacturing teams, including production testing and debugging support.
- Ability to independently own complex firmware development efforts, drive technical decisions, and deliver against program milestones.
- Strong analytical, problem-solving, and communication skills, including the ability to collaborate across engineering disciplines.
- Applicants must be a U.S. citizen or national, U.S. permanent resident, or lawfully admitted into the U.S. as a refugee or granted asylum.
Nice To Haves
- Experience with RF and communications systems, including OFDM, digital beamforming, phased antenna arrays, and 3GPP specifications.
- Experience developing firmware for custom communications ASICs, RFICs, beamforming processors, or DSP-based systems.
- Experience with RTOSes and hard real-time constraints, including FreeRTOS or Zephyr.
- Experience with Arm Cortex-M architecture and instruction set.
- Experience integrating and controlling DSP accelerators and hardware processing engines.
- Experience with Rust, particularly no-std Rust for embedded systems.
- Experience with secure boot, firmware authentication, and embedded security architectures.
- Experience with high-speed interfaces, including SerDes initialization, configuration, monitoring, and diagnostics.
- Experience with CI workflows, automated firmware regression testing, and hardware-in-the-loop validation.
- Understanding of board-level hardware design and ability to interpret schematics, ASIC specifications, and component data sheets.
- Experience with pre-silicon firmware development and testing using QEMU, Palladium, ZeBu, or FPGA prototyping platforms.
- Experience with production test firmware, manufacturing diagnostics, silicon characterization, and firmware release management.
- Experience mentoring engineers and providing technical leadership across complex silicon development programs.
Responsibilities
- Lead the architecture, design, implementation, integration, and validation of embedded firmware for custom digital ASICs, including Digital Beamforming ASICs.
- Develop ROM code and runtime firmware for DBF ASIC functions, including beam pointing, analog calibration, FEIC management, SerDes link management, secure boot, telemetry, and sideband control.
- Define and own hardware/software interfaces, including register interfaces, control protocols, initialization sequences, interrupt handling, and hardware/software partitioning.
- Develop firmware verification and validation strategies, including test plans, functional and integration testing, regression testing, and performance characterization.
- Drive pre-silicon firmware development, integration, debugging, and verification using simulation, emulation, and FPGA prototyping platforms.
- Lead post-silicon firmware bring-up, debugging, characterization, and validation, resolving hardware/software integration issues.
- Deliver firmware to silicon validation, system test, and manufacturing teams, including production test firmware, diagnostics, release packages, and documentation.
- Work with test and manufacturing engineering to define firmware requirements, develop production test and diagnostic capabilities, and support manufacturing readiness.
- Develop and maintain automated firmware testing frameworks, continuous integration workflows, and hardware-in-the-loop validation environments.
- Establish firmware development methodologies, coding standards, release management practices, and quality requirements.
- Identify and mitigate risks related to firmware architecture, silicon functionality, real-time performance, and hardware/software integration.
- Collaborate with ASIC design, verification, RF, communications systems, platform software, and manufacturing teams to meet functional, performance, and system-level requirements.
- Provide technical leadership through architecture and design reviews, hands-on problem solving, and mentoring while remaining directly involved in firmware development and execution.
Benefits
- Medical insurance
- Dental insurance
- Vision insurance
- Basic and supplemental life insurance
- Paid parental leave
- Short- and long-term disability
- 401(k) with company match of up to 5%
- Education Support Program
- Stock options for regular employees working at least 20 hours per week
- Paid time off of up to four weeks per year based on scheduled hours
- Up to 14 company-paid holidays
- Potential eligibility for bonuses, depending on role type and job level; bonus amounts and eligibility are not guaranteed
- Relocation provided
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What This Job Offers
Job Type
Full-time
Career Level
Principal
