Senior Embedded Firmware Engineer - Contractor

Very LLC•Toronto, ON

3d•$100•Remote

About The Position

Very is a fully distributed technology firm led by expert problem-solvers who create efficient, scalable solutions that move commercial, industrial, and consumer products from pilot to production in record time. We believe that real innovation happens in the grind — working shoulder to shoulder with clients who are building the future. Our team thrives on that energy. When we’re not helping clients deliver business-critical outcomes, we’re refining our craft and celebrating what it means to do hard things well. We’ve built a collaborative, tight-knit culture that thrives in both remote and in-person settings. We’ve won numerous workplace awards over the years, including Great Place to Work certification and recognition from Parity.org as a Best Company for Women to Advance. Our clients include well-known brands like Vizio, Peloton, Clear, iHeart Radio, and Fellowes — all determined to leverage connected devices and AI to drive meaningful impact. Our job is simple: help them win. We are seeking a senior firmware engineer with 10+ years of professional embedded development experience who has deep expertise in Matter protocol implementation on Espressif’s ESP32 platform using ESP-IDF. This role requires end-to-end ownership of the device firmware stack, from schematic review and board bring-up through production firmware, OTA, and certification. We dedicate each engineer to a single project in order to promote focus and minimize context switching. You will be developing production-grade firmware for Matter-enabled devices from bring-up to certification. You will own firmware development across the full device lifecycle, including schematic review, board bring-up, driver integration, OTA updates, and certification readiness. You will also participate in hardware debugging and validation using tools such as JTAG/SWD, logic analyzers, and protocol sniffers to diagnose low-level issues across firmware, hardware, and network layers. You’ll collaborate closely with hardware engineers and cross-functional teams to deliver production-ready devices. This role involves debugging complex, real-world interoperability issues across Matter ecosystems (Apple Home, Google Home, Alexa), requiring deep protocol-level understanding and hands-on problem solving.

Requirements

10+ years professional embedded/firmware engineering in C/C++
Significant experience with ESP-IDF — not Arduino wrappers, but real ESP-IDF work: CMake/Kconfig build system, partition tables, NVS, OTA frameworks, FreeRTOS task management, and low-level driver integration (I2C, SPI, UART, ADC, GPIO)
Direct, demonstrable work implementing Matter on ESP32-series silicon (ESP32, ESP32-C3, ESP32-S3, or ESP32-H2) using Espressif's ESP-Matter SDK or the upstream Connectedhomeip stack
Hands-on with at least one Matter transport at the firmware level — Wi-Fi or Thread (802.15.4)
Experience debugging commissioning flows, interop failures, and protocol-level issues across ecosystems (Apple Home, Google Home, Alexa)
Familiarity with secure boot, flash encryption, and device attestation in the Matter context
Comfortable reading specs (Matter, Thread, 802.15.4) and translating them into working firmware
Must reside in Canada
Cannot reside in Québec
Must be authorized to work without sponsorship on a permanent basis
Can debug complex firmware and hardware interactions under real-time constraints
Are comfortable working with incomplete specifications and ambiguous device behavior
Take ownership of problems end-to-end, from root cause analysis through production resolution
Communicate clearly with both technical and non-technical stakeholders in a client-facing environment

Nice To Haves

Contributions to open-source Matter or ESP-IDF repositories
Experience taking a Matter device through CSA certification
Background in adjacent protocols — Zigbee, Z-Wave, BLE Mesh — demonstrating breadth across the connected device landscape
History of working in a consultancy or product development firm where they've shipped across multiple product lines, not just one internal product
Comfort with hardware debug toolchains — JTAG/SWD, logic analyzers, protocol sniffers
Experience standing up CI/CD for firmware builds and automated test harnesses

Responsibilities

Developing production-grade firmware for Matter-enabled devices from bring-up to certification.
Owning firmware development across the full device lifecycle, including schematic review, board bring-up, driver integration, OTA updates, and certification readiness.
Participating in hardware debugging and validation using tools such as JTAG/SWD, logic analyzers, and protocol sniffers to diagnose low-level issues across firmware, hardware, and network layers.
Collaborating closely with hardware engineers and cross-functional teams to deliver production-ready devices.
Debugging complex, real-world interoperability issues across Matter ecosystems (Apple Home, Google Home, Alexa), requiring deep protocol-level understanding and hands-on problem solving.