Staff Embedded Systems Engineer

Inspiren

14h•$200,000 - $225,000•Remote

About The Position

We are seeking a high-caliber Staff Embedded Systems Engineer with a specialization in the System-on-Chip (SoC) landscape. You aren’t just a firmware developer; you are an architect of hardware-software integration who understands the nuances, pitfalls, and hidden costs of different silicon ecosystems. As our SoC Expert, you will be the primary technical authority for evaluating and abstracting our software stack across various silicon platforms and will guide our product roadmap by leveraging your deep-seated opinions on vendor ecosystems, toolchains, and Board Support Packages (BSPs).

Requirements

Bachelor's or Master's degree in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, Computer Science, or a related engineering fieldExperience: 10+ years in Embedded Systems, with at least 5 years specifically focused on high-level application processors (e.g. ARM Cortex-A series)
Multi-Vendor Mastery: Proven track record shipping products on a handful of different SoC vendor platforms (e.g., NXP, Broadcom, MediaTek, etc.) with strong, experience-based perspectives on the pros and cons of the major vendors
Deep Linux Knowledge: Expert-level understanding of the Linux kernel, device drivers, and bootloaders as they relate to vendor-specific implementations and board bring-up
A Porting Pedigree: Demonstrated experience taking a mature codebase and successfully re-platforming it onto a new silicon architecture (e.g. porting a product from NVIDIA Jetson to a MediaTek Genio or Qualcomm Snapdragon platform)
Connectivity: Expertise with wireless protocols such as Bluetooth, LoRaWAN, and LTE and IoT_ajacet technologies such as AWS, IoTCore, MQTT, and Edge Computing
Over-The-Air (OTA) Updates: Demonstrated expertise with implementing OTA updates for IoT devices, including a thorough understanding of secure boot processes, integrity checks, delta updates, and rollback strategies to guarantee system stability and reliability throughout and after updates
CI/CD Orchestration: Expertise in GitHub Actions specifically tailored for embedded targets including use of static and dynamic analysis. Experience using QEMU or Renode considered a plus
Secure SLDC: A deep understanding of embedded security, including secure coding, threat modeling, and vulnerability assessment - integrated throughout the development process, ensuring security isn't an afterthought
Communication: Excellent verbal and written communication skills are essential for thriving in our fast-paced, remote-first, dynamic environment, where adapting to changing priorities is key.
Programming Proficiency: Proficiency in embedded development (C/C++), coupled with robust analysis and debugging capabilities utilizing tools and methodologies such as Coverity, Valgrind, JTAG, GDB, and logic analyzers

Responsibilities

Lead Silicon Strategy & Selection: Lead the evaluation of application processors for next-generation products. Compare performance, power, thermals, and long-term support (LTS) across vendors like Qualcomm, TI, MediaTek, Rockchip, and Analog Devices and provide honest assessments of vendor offerings. You should be able to articulate why one vendor’s SDK is superior for our specific use case, or why another’s documentation makes them a risky choice.
Lead Migration and Porting effort: Design, develop and maintain hardware abstraction layers (HALs) that minimize vendor lock-in, streamline future platform pivots, and enable the migration of existing applications and drivers from one vendor’s BSP to another (e.g. porting a product from a MediaTek Genio base to a Qualcomm Snapdragon platform).
Hardware-based CI: Design and oversee CI pipelines that trigger builds and deploy images directly to both simulated and physical target hardware for automated verification.
Performance Optimization: Dive deep into SoC-specific hardware accelerators (NPUs, DSPs, GPUs) to squeeze maximum performance out of the selected silicon.
Lead Embedded Systems Projects: Oversee the end-to-end development and performance optimization of embedded systems, software, and firmware for new devices from concept and design through manufacturing and launch.
Collaborate Cross-Functionally: Work closely with hardware engineers, software developers, product managers, key-stakeholders, and our outsourced manufacturing partners partners to define system requirements and specifications per product needs
Innovate and Optimize: Stay current with industry trends and emerging technologies. Introduce new methodologies and technologies to enhance performance and meet design specifications. Provide deep technical expertise and support in embedded systems development, testing, and validation across the product lifecycle
Embed Rigorous Design for Excellence (DfX) Mindset: Conduct design reviews and both design and process Failure Mode Effect Analysis (FMEA), partnering with our design and development partners to drive rigorous Design for Cost (DfX), supply chain, reliability, quality, and manufacturing methodologies across all phases of product development
Mentor Team Members: Provide technical guidance and mentorship, fostering a culture of excellence and innovation through a culture of continuous learning
Ensure Quality, Reliability, and Compliance: Oversee the prototyping process, conduct testing, and validate embedded system performance and reliability against requirements, including environmental and accelerated testing. Ensure all embedded software meets regulatory standards and industry best practices. Set quality and reliability specifications
Problem-Solve: Troubleshoot complex embedded system issues and implement effective solutions in a timely manner. Act as Tier-2 engineering support for products in the field
Strategic Planning: Contribute to the long-term embedded systems roadmap, aligning development with the company’s product and platform roadmap