Senior Firmware Engineer

Nottingham Spirk•Cleveland, OH

1d•$100,000 - $149,000

About The Position

Nottingham Spirk has an immediate opening for a Senior Firmware Engineer. The ideal candidate is located in the Cleveland metro area or willing to relocate to Northeast Ohio. About Us Nottingham Spirk is a Cleveland, Ohio-based, design services consultancy. Founded in 1972, Nottingham Spirk (NS) helps corporate innovators grow their businesses by partnering with them from design to delivery, to create remarkable product innovations, medical devices, consumer product packaging, and more. With every discipline needed for your project in-house, we help our client-partners disrupt their industries, improve the lives of consumers, and change the world. With 1,500 issued patents and counting – and a 95% commercialization rate – the things we create make it to market. Requirements Summary The Senior Firmware Engineer is a hands-on technical leader responsible for architecting and delivering embedded firmware for innovative products across a wide range of industries. This role spans the full development lifecycle—from early concept and prototyping through validation, manufacturing support, and product launch—and is ideal for an engineer who enjoys solving complex technical problems and bringing real products to market. A key aspect of this position is working closely with development partners to ensure firmware is robust, scalable, and production-ready. In addition to core firmware responsibilities, this role contributes to broader engineering efforts as needed to support project success. This is a dynamic, fast-paced role involving multiple concurrent projects across a diverse product landscape, including connected devices, edge AI systems, and products spanning consumer, industrial, defense, and medical applications. The role also includes direct technical interaction with clients, requiring strong communication and collaboration skills. We value engineers with strong fundamentals, sound technical judgment, and the ability to adapt quickly across technologies, product categories, and development environments. This role works closely with electrical, mechanical, software, design, and manufacturing teams to bring products from concept to commercialization.

Requirements

10+ years of engineering product development experience
5+ years of embedded C development experience
Strong C programming skills with extensive embedded systems development experience
Proven expertise in debugging complex embedded systems, including issues across firmware, hardware, and system integration boundaries
Ability to collaborate with hardware teams to define optimal system architectures
Experience establishing firmware development practices, coding standards, and reusable platform architectures
Proficiency with lab and debugging tools (oscilloscopes, logic analyzers, spectrum analyzers, protocol analyzers, power analyzers)
Experience developing connected or wireless embedded systems
Experience with ARM-based microcontrollers/processors and associated toolchains
Hands-on experience with wireless technologies (Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, cellular, Zigbee)
Familiarity with low-power design techniques for battery-powered devices
Strong understanding of embedded communication protocols such as SPI, I2C, UART, CAN, USB, and Ethernet
Ability to read and interpret hardware schematics
Strong documentation and communication skills
Track record of delivering high-quality work on schedule
Familiarity with standard peripheral serial communication protocols
Familiarity with security-related aspects associated with embedded systems
The ability and desire to “flex” between military, medical, consumer, and industrial product types
Due to compliance with U.S. export control laws and regulations, candidate must be a U.S. Person, which is defined as, a U.S. citizen, a U.S. permanent resident, or have protected status in the U.S. under asylum or refugee status.

Nice To Haves

Experience with Zephyr RTOS, embedded Linux or Yocto
Experience with edge AI or embedded ML
Familiarity with smart home ecosystems and standards
Knowledge of networking protocols (TCP/IP, MQTT, FTP)
Experience with UI frameworks such as Qt
Working knowledge of embedded security principles, including secure communications, authentication, key handling, and secure update mechanisms
Familiarity with regulatory and certification processes (FCC, Industry Canada, carrier certifications)
Prior experience in a firmware lead or project leadership role
Experience in a design services or consulting environment

Responsibilities

Provide technical leadership in firmware development across all phases of a project, both internally and in client-facing contexts
Define and own firmware architecture, including requirements, specifications, and implementation from prototype through production
Help identify technical risks, tradeoffs, and implementation strategies early in development
Support firmware bring-up, system integration, and validation through production
Design and implement embedded firmware and device-side networking for a wide range of products
Plan and implement secure device architectures, including OTA firmware/software update strategies
Develop and integrate APIs and services to enable device functionality and system interoperability
Architect and implement IoT systems spanning device firmware through cloud platforms
Integrate products with cloud ecosystems such as AWS, Azure, and Google Cloud
Enable integration with consumer ecosystems (e.g., Alexa, Google Assistant, Apple HomeKit) where required by the product
Collaborate closely with hardware engineers on system design, including microcontrollers, processors, wireless modules, sensors, and motion systems
Work effectively with internal multidisciplinary teams and external development partners
Communicate technical concepts, solutions, and company capabilities to both technical and non-technical stakeholders