Principal Firmware Engineer

SharkNinja•Needham, MA

3d•Onsite

About The Position

The Principal Connected Firmware Engineer is the senior individual technical contributor in SharkNinja's Connected Firmware organization — the deepest hands-on expert in wireless connectivity, display/UI, and device-to-app-to-cloud integration. This role sets technical direction on the hardest connected-architecture problems in the portfolio and holds the technical standard that internal developers and external partners build against. The Principal Engineer designs the connected-platform interfaces and standards, then writes the reference implementations — connectivity stacks, provisioning and pairing code, display/UI frameworks, and app/cloud integration layers — that prove the architecture out in working code before any partner builds against it. That combination is what gives this role its leverage: not just interface contracts and design reviews, but hands-on implementation that sets the technical bar for the hardest connected-architecture problems in the portfolio. This is an architect-track role for an engineer who wants deep technical scope in connected systems without moving into people management.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree in Computer Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Computer Science, or related discipline required.
12+ years of embedded software and firmware engineering experience, with significant depth in wireless connectivity and connected-device architecture.
Demonstrated track record as a principal, staff, or lead architect on complex connected embedded systems (BLE, Wi-Fi, Matter, Thread, Zigbee).
Proven experience taking products through wireless certification (Bluetooth SIG, Wi-Fi Alliance, Matter).
Proven experience defining architecture executed by external development partners and holding technical standards against outsourced work.
Experience developing firmware for consumer electronics, home appliances, robotics, IoT devices, or related high-volume industries.
Experience mentoring engineers and influencing technical direction without formal authority.
Deep embedded C / C++ on resource-constrained platforms.
Wireless connectivity technologies (Wi-Fi, Bluetooth/BLE, Matter, Thread, Zigbee) at protocol and stack level.
Device provisioning, pairing, and companion app integration (BLE GATT, Wi-Fi onboarding, cloud device registration and authentication).
Display technologies and embedded graphics/UI frameworks.
Device security, secure boot, key management, and cybersecurity frameworks for connected products.
OTA update architecture, rollback, and field recovery.
Wireless certification processes and RF regulatory compliance.
Build systems and toolchains (gcc, CMake, headless), static analysis, unit testing frameworks.
Hardware-software integration, board bring-up, and low-level debug.

Nice To Haves

Master’s degree preferred.

Responsibilities

Define reference architectures and reference implementations for wireless connectivity, display/UI, and app/cloud integration reused across product categories.
Own the design of the most technically demanding connected subsystems — Bluetooth/BLE and Wi-Fi stacks, Matter/Thread/Zigbee integration, display and embedded UI frameworks, and device provisioning and pairing protocols.
Make and document the technical decisions that constrain downstream implementation: connectivity interface contracts, app/cloud API boundaries, and wireless platform selection criteria.
Prototype and de-risk new connectivity, display, and app-integration technologies ahead of program commitment.
Lead technical design reviews for internal and partner-developed connected firmware; approve or reject against defined criteria.
Translate architectural intent into requirements that partners can execute without interpretation.
Serve as the technical escalation point for partner design disputes and interoperability or integration failures.
Assess partner technical capability in wireless and display subsystems and contribute to consolidation and qualification decisions.
Provide the technical depth behind certification submissions — Bluetooth SIG, Wi-Fi Alliance, Matter — and own root-cause resolution when a submission fails.
Track relevant wireless standards evolution and inform architecture decisions ahead of spec changes.
Define the reproducibility standard in technical terms for connected subsystems — source, toolchain, and build manifest requirements sufficient for independent rebuild of shipping binaries.
Contribute to the test automation framework for connectivity and display subsystems: CI pipeline design, RF and interoperability test-harness infrastructure, static analysis configuration.
Establish and evolve coding standards, review criteria, and quality thresholds applied across internal and supplier connected-firmware codebases.
Provide technical direction to the connected-track Senior Embedded Firmware Developer; mentor senior and mid-level engineers across US and China teams working on connected features.
Partner with Hardware Engineering, Systems, Cloud, Mobile App, and NPD to gate critical connected-product behavior at design time.
Represent connected firmware technical positions in cross-functional and executive forums.