Senior Firmware Engineer

AIM•Seattle, WA

14h

About The Position

AIM is building the firmware foundation for autonomous heavy equipment, with firmware that connects computing, control, sensors, and safety systems in rugged, safety-critical machinery. The role focuses on designing and building core firmware for AIM’s Generation 2 hardware platform and global fleet operations. The work spans low-level firmware, hardware integration, real-time performance, reliability, observability, and production deployment in demanding jobsite environments. The engineer will develop embedded C++ systems for microcontrollers and embedded Linux, including drivers, hardware abstraction layers, and system services. They will support hardware bring-up and validation, diagnose issues across firmware and hardware boundaries, improve fleet-scale telemetry and debugging, and help establish engineering standards, testing practices, and workflows. The role also includes mentoring engineers and collaborating across hardware, software, autonomy, and field operations.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree in Computer Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Robotics, or equivalent hands-on experience.
At least 5 years of professional experience in firmware or embedded systems development.
Strong C++ experience in embedded or systems programming environments.
Experience developing firmware for microcontrollers or embedded Linux systems.
Experience with hardware interfaces and communication protocols, including CAN, SPI, I2C, UART, and Ethernet.
Strong debugging skills across hardware/software boundaries.
Experience designing systems for reliability, safety, and real-world deployment.
Proven ability to deliver production-quality firmware in cross-functional environments.

Nice To Haves

Experience with safety-critical systems or real-time embedded systems.
Experience with robotics, autonomy, or heavy equipment systems.
Familiarity with RTOS or real-time scheduling concepts.
Experience with hardware bring-up and board-level debugging.
Experience with firmware update mechanisms, such as OTA, bootloaders, or secure updates.
Experience with embedded observability, including logging, tracing, and telemetry.
Familiarity with HIL testing, validation frameworks, or hardware test automation.
Experience working in high-reliability or high-entropy environments.

Responsibilities

Design and implement firmware for AIM’s Generation 2 hardware platform using C++.
Develop low-level drivers, hardware abstraction layers (HAL), and system services.
Build robust interfaces to sensors, actuators, ECUs, and communication buses, including CAN, SPI, I2C, UART, and Ethernet.
Ensure deterministic behavior across real-time and near-real-time control paths.
Write clean, efficient, testable embedded C++ code and implement error handling, watchdogs, and fail-safe mechanisms.
Build firmware resilient to hardware faults, communication loss, and environmental variability.
Contribute to firmware standards, architecture, and coding practices.
Design and implement telemetry, logging, and debugging capabilities for embedded systems.
Diagnose complex issues across firmware, hardware, and system integration boundaries; perform root-cause analysis and eliminate recurring field failures.
Lead firmware bring-up for new hardware, including Gen2 boards, daughterboards, and interposers.
Work with Electrical and Mechanical Engineering to validate hardware designs and interfaces.
Support HIL testing, regression testing, and field validation.
Optimize timing, memory usage, and CPU utilization, and ensure real-time constraints are met for control and safety-critical paths.
Balance system performance with robustness and maintainability.
Mentor engineers on embedded systems, firmware design, and debugging techniques.
Improve firmware development workflows, CI/CD pipelines, and testing frameworks.
Establish best practices for firmware reliability, safety, and maintainability.