Vehicle Lead, Firmware Engineering

ALSO • Palo Alto, CA

14d • $200,000 - $250,000

About The Position

We’re ALSO, an electric mobility company originally conceived as a part of Rivian. We’re a passionate team of builders, dreamers, doers and innovators, focused on creating entirely new (not to mention, innovative and delightful) vertically integrated, small EVs designed to meet the global mobility challenges of today and tomorrow. Our mission is to inspire everyone to ride ALSO—replacing many local car, truck and SUV miles with ones on vehicles that are more affordable, more enjoyable and 10-50x more efficient.
In this role, you will lead vehicle-level firmware integration for select next generation products, serving as the primary point of contact for all integration issues across your assigned vehicles. You will drive architectural decisions at the vehicle interface level and collaborate with dedicated HW and UX engineering teams to deliver powerful, unique, and vertically integrated user experiences. You will coordinate feature delivery and release management while partnering with Pod Leads, embedded software, mobile, cloud connectivity, and information technology teams through all stages of program development.

Requirements

• 5+ years of experience in embedded software/firmware development, with demonstrated experience in vehicle-level or system-level integration.
• MS in an engineering discipline, preferably Computer Science or Electrical Engineering.
• Proven leadership in coordinating firmware delivery across multiple teams or modules.
• Deep experience with automotive/vehicle communication protocols: CAN, CAN-FD, LIN, as well as I2C, SPI, USB-PD, and other digital protocols.
• Strong track record delivering software-enabled hardware products, including low-level firmware development (drivers, bootloaders, HAL layers).
• Expert-level proficiency in C/C++ and debugging complex embedded systems across multiple ECUs.
• Experience with real-time operating systems, ideally in functional-safety critical applications (ISO 26262 familiarity a plus).
• Strong understanding of hardware/software architecture selection with cost, performance, and safety tradeoffs.
• Experience implementing and managing CI/CD & test automation pipelines for embedded products.
• Excellent communication skills with demonstrated ability to coordinate across hardware, software, and program management teams.
• Ability to work independently as a domain expert, driving decisions without requiring detailed direction.
• Experience with release management processes and tooling (Git workflows, release branching strategies).
• Familiarity with vehicle integration testing methodologies and tools.
• Prior experience in a technical lead or integration lead capacity.
• Experience mentoring junior and senior engineers.

Responsibilities

• Vehicle Integration Ownership: Serve as the single point of contact for all firmware integration issues on assigned vehicles, driving resolution across cross-functional teams.
• Feature & Release Management: Organize features and merge requests for vehicle-level integration; prepare and communicate release notes to stakeholders.
• Sprint Planning: Define and organize firmware integration targets for each sprint in coordination with Pod Leads and program milestones.
• Cross-Team Coordination: Partner with Pod Leads on firmware development priorities, ensuring alignment between module-level work and vehicle-level integration needs.
• Architecture & Interface Development: Contribute code to vehicle interfaces and system architecture; make informed decisions on integration patterns and cross-ECU communication.
• System Integration Leadership: Lead full vehicle system integration efforts including feature implementation, ECU handshaking, debugging, and root cause analysis across distributed systems.
• Hardware Collaboration: Collaborate with design engineering teams (Electrical, Mechanical, Test) on designing and documenting SW integration workflows across various ECUs.
• Quality Assurance: Oversee comprehensive test plans and validation of firmware functionality, stability, and performance under various conditions, including low power modes and safety-critical functions.
• CI/CD Pipeline Ownership: Drive implementation and maintenance of robust CI/CD pipelines ensuring the team has access to stable and development builds.
• Production support: Support pre-production and production build activities, vehicle testing, and launch readiness

Benefits

• Robust health coverage. Excellent health, dental and vision insurance covered up to 100% by ALSO with FSA & HSA options.
• One Medical membership and dedicated insurance advocates.
• Rich fertility and family building benefits with Progyny.
• Flexible time off.
• 401(k) match.

What This Job Offers

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