Sr. Engineer, Embedded Firmware (bare metal)

Ayar Labs • San Jose, CA

13d • Onsite

About The Position

Ayar Labs is seeking a Sr. Engineer, Embedded Firmware to drive firmware design from inception to customer deployment, ensuring seamless hardware validation and integration. This role involves leveraging expertise in embedded systems, multi-chip package environments, and high-speed SerDes to shape the future of optical interconnect. The company is pioneering co-packaged optics (CPO) using light instead of electricity to move data faster, further, and with a fraction of the energy needed for AI models. Ayar Labs is backed by industry giants and manufactured in partnership with the leading semiconductor ecosystem.

Requirements

• Bachelor's in Electrical/Computer Engineering or a related field with 3+ years of relevant industry experience.
• Proven expertise in bare-metal embedded firmware development, with strong programming skills in C.
• Experience with various microcontrollers and firmware debugging tools.
• Proficiency with modern version control workflows (e.g., Git), modern firmware development tools, and CI/CD tools.
• Hands-on, proactive approach with the ability to thrive in a fast-paced, dynamic startup environment.
• Silicon bring-up experience.
• Experience in scripting with high level language like Python.
• Experience with Make-based build flows.

Nice To Haves

• Ability to own architecture and development of firmware modules from scratch.
• Experience in embedded firmware development for high-speed electronics and photonics applications.
• Silicon bring-up experience for high-speed SerDes and photonics applications.

Responsibilities

• Design, develop, and optimize embedded firmware for controlling high-speed SerDes interfaces and electronic/photonic subsystems.
• Collaborate closely with analog/mixed-signal, digital, and photonic block designers to develop and implement sophisticated control algorithms for our photonic circuits and establish the micro-architecture and embedded requirements for our multi-chip package systems.
• Write unit tests and integration tests for firmware modules; participate in firmware code reviews; maintain high-quality firmware through CI/CD practices.
• Develop and execute firmware test code to support initial silicon power-on and bringup activities; debug hardware-firmware interactions at first silicon.
• Partner effectively with hardware, validation, systems, and software teams throughout the product development lifecycle.
• Maintain clear technical documentation including APIs, firmware architecture documents, module specifications, and build/release notes.

Benefits

• Equal Opportunity Employer
• Commitment to all policies that afford equal opportunity employment
• Policy to provide reasonable accommodation when requested by a qualified applicant or employee with a disability, unless such accommodation would cause an undue hardship.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Senior