Senior Engineer - Firmware

Vector Atomic•Pleasanton, CA

6d•$120,000 - $160,000•Onsite

About The Position

Vector Atomic, an IonQ company, is seeking a Senior Firmware Engineer to join a cross-functional team building next-generation quantum sensing instruments. The role involves designing, implementing, and verifying embedded software for ST microcontrollers, including commercial off-the-shelf devices and MCUs on custom ASICs, and developing low-level control algorithms for precision measurement. The engineer will work with hardware engineers throughout product development, from schematic review and board bring-up through production. The position provides technical leadership and architectural direction for Rust-based quantum control systems across multiple projects. It includes designing system controllers on ARM SoC and leading development of user-space drivers, data acquisition pipelines, robust control loops, reusable control libraries and frameworks, and reliable error handling. The role also contributes to coding standards, team development practices, technical planning, and cross-functional engineering decisions. This is an on-site position at Vector Atomic's office in Pleasanton, California. Employees must meet the stated U.S. export-control eligibility requirements and be comfortable working in a laboratory environment.

Requirements

Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, or Computer Science graduate with a BS/MS degree and 8+ years of related work experience, or a PhD with 5+ years of experience.
Must meet the stated U.S. export-control eligibility requirements: be a U.S. citizen (born or naturalized), lawful U.S. permanent resident, or a qualifying refugee or asylee.
Must be comfortable working in a laboratory environment.
Proven ability to lead technical initiatives and influence engineering decisions across teams.
Excellent written and verbal communication skills, including the ability to explain complex technical concepts to diverse audiences.
Demonstrated expertise in system architecture and design of complex embedded systems.
Extensive experience developing production Rust systems, including async runtimes, concurrency patterns, and performance optimization.
Deep understanding of hardware-software interfaces, including TCP, UART, MMAP, and low-level system programming.
Proven ability to architect and design complex software systems from the ground up.
Strong debugging and troubleshooting skills using tools such as debuggers, profilers, and simulation.
Experience mentoring and leading other engineers in technical growth.

Nice To Haves

Experience with Rust on bare-metal systems or embedded Linux.
Experience with Python, including common scientific libraries and building developer tools.
Expert-level understanding of control algorithms such as PID, state-space controllers, and adaptive control.
Design training or expertise with fixed-point algorithms, DSP, and digital filters.
Extensive experience interfacing with external devices through protocols such as TCP, UART, SPI, and I2C.
Experience in C/C++ and understanding of systems programming across multiple languages.
Strong background working with SoC/FPGA devices and hardware-software co-design.
Experience with Linux kernel development and device drivers.
Comfort using test and measurement equipment, including oscilloscopes, function generators, and voltmeters, to confirm coding performance.
Experience with CI/CD pipelines, automated testing frameworks, and development infrastructure.

Responsibilities

Provide technical leadership and architectural direction for Rust-based quantum control systems across multiple projects.
Write production-quality code in C/C++ and establish coding standards and best practices for the team.
Work with and mentor a cross-functional team of physicists, electronics engineers, and firmware engineers to create next-generation quantum instruments.
Design and architect system controllers on ARM SoC.
Lead development of user-space drivers, data acquisition pipelines, and robust control loops with reliable error handling.
Define and implement control algorithms essential to operation of precision sensing instruments.
Architect reusable libraries and frameworks for control of quantum systems.
Lead technical discussions with hardware engineers and drive board testing and hardware bring-up strategies.
Mentor junior and senior engineers through code reviews, pair programming, and technical guidance.
Drive continuous improvement of development processes, tooling, and infrastructure.
Represent the team in cross-functional technical reviews, architecture discussions, and strategic planning sessions.