Sr. Staff Engineer, Embedded Firmware

Ayar Labs • San Jose, CA

3d • $170,000 - $223,000 • Onsite

About The Position

Sr Staff Engineer - Embedded Firmware Location: San Jose, CA (on site required) Ayar Labs is revolutionizing the world of interconnect technology with our cutting-edge electro-photonic chips. We are seeking an exceptional Senior Engineer, Firmware to lead and own the firmware development lifecycle for our groundbreaking products. In this critical role, you will drive firmware design from inception to customer deployment, ensuring seamless hardware validation and integration. This is a unique opportunity to leverage your expertise in embedded systems, multi-chip package environments, and high-speed SerDes to shape the future of optical interconnect. At Ayar Labs we’re about to revolutionize computing by moving data with light. We’re unleashing processing power for artificial intelligence, high performance computing, cloud and telecommunications by removing the bottlenecks created by today’s electrical I/O -- making it possible to continue scaling computing system performance. Ayar Labs is the first to deliver an optical I/O solution that combines in-package optical I/O chiplets and multi-wavelength remote light sources to replace traditional electrical I/O. This silicon photonics-based I/O solution enables chips to communicate with each other from millimeters to kilometers, to deliver orders of magnitude improvements in latency, bandwidth density, and power consumption. With our strong collaborations with industry leaders and government, our deep ties to MIT and UC Berkeley, and our commitment to hiring the best engineers in photonics and electronics, joining our team gives you the opportunity to collaborate with renowned experts on challenging, paradigm-shifting work. We are passionate about delivering in-package optical I/O at scale, leveraging the strength of our patent portfolio and our team of leading interdisciplinary experts. We believe that deep cross-collaboration between teams facilitated by honest, open debate is the best way to drive innovation and achieve big wins. Join our team and experience the possibilities. Resources: Executives from Intel and GLOBALFOUNDRIES share their thoughts on Ayar Labs and the promise of in-package optical I/O (video) Ayar Labs in the News and Recent announcements LinkedIn and Twitter Ayar Labs is an Affirmative Action/Equal Opportunity Employer and is strongly committed to all policies which will afford equal opportunity employment to all qualified persons without regard to age, sex, national origin, race, color, ethnicity, creed, religion, gender identity, sexual orientation, disability, veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by law. It is the policy of Ayar Labs to provide reasonable accommodation when requested by a qualified applicant or employee with a disability, unless such accommodation would cause an undue hardship. Veterans are more than welcome and encouraged to apply.

Requirements

• Bachelor's in Electrical/Computer Engineering or a related field with 6+ years of experience
• Proven expertise in bare-metal embedded firmware development, with strong programming skills in C
• Hands-on, proactive approach with the ability to thrive in a fast-paced, dynamic startup environment.
• Experience with various microcontrollers and firmware debugging tools.
• Proficiency with modern version control workflows (e.g., Git).
• Familiarity with project management tools (JIRA), and CI/CD tools.

Nice To Haves

• Experience in embedded firmware development for high-speed electronics and photonics applications.
• Silicon bring-up experience for high-speed SerDes and photonics applications.
• Experience in scripting with high level language like Python.
• Experience with Make-based build flows.
• Writing firmware optimized for ARM/ RISC-V CPUs.
• Ability to own architecture and development of firmware modules from scratch.

Responsibilities

• Firmware Architecture: Collaborate closely with analog/mixed-signal, digital, and photonic block designers to develop sophisticated control algorithms for our photonic circuits and establish the micro-architecture and embedded requirements for our multi-chip package systems.
• Drive embedded firmware development: Design, develop, and optimize firmware for controlling complex electronic-photonic chips featuring multiple high-speed SerDes.
• Provide Technical Leadership: Mentor and guide junior engineers, contributing to their professional growth and development.
• Collaborate Cross-Functionally: Partner effectively with diverse teams, including hardware, software, validation and systems engineers, to achieve project goals.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Mid Level
• Number of Employees: 101-250 employees