Lead Firmware Engineer

Firmware Engineer Lead, technical leadership of a small team 7-10+ years

Other levels: Firmware Engineer Senior Firmware Engineer Principal Firmware Engineer Staff Firmware Engineer Junior Firmware Engineer

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Apple

Tesla

Qualcomm

Intel

Western Digital

Seagate

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The job description

Tech stack. Team technical leadership, firmware project planning, architecture review facilitation, HIL test strategy, hiring and interviewing, release management, cross-functional coordination, risk management

About the role

You will lead a small firmware team delivering device software on committed schedules while maintaining genuinely high engineering standards under hardware constraints. This is a hands-on leadership role: you will still write significant firmware and personally own critical subsystems while guiding the team's technical direction, planning cadence, and individual growth trajectories. Your success is measured in shipped devices, predictable firmware delivery against hardware timelines, and engineers who grow visibly stronger every quarter. The best leads here are force multipliers: better architectures through incisive reviews, faster delivery through clear priorities, and higher quality through testing discipline the whole team adopts willingly.

What you will achieve

Lead a team of 3 to 6 firmware engineers delivering device firmware on committed schedules with high quality and a sustainable, healthy pace
Own the firmware roadmap for your products: prioritizing features honestly, managing hardware availability dependencies, and communicating trade-offs to stakeholders clearly
Ship major firmware releases with clean architecture, comprehensive hardware-in-the-loop test coverage, and safe OTA update paths, avoiding crippling technical debt
Grow each team member deliberately through regular feedback, well-chosen stretch assignments on hard problems, and mentorship tailored to individual career goals
Improve team practices continuously: planning accuracy, review turnaround time, HIL automation coverage, and onboarding that gets new engineers productive fast

What you will bring

Must-haves

7 to 10+ years of firmware engineering with multiple production devices owned end to end through their complete lifecycle
Demonstrated technical leadership: driving firmware architecture decisions, setting team coding standards, and owning delivery commitments publicly
Strong planning instincts: sequencing firmware work around hardware availability constraints, estimating honestly, and managing integration risk proactively
Excellent code review skills that improve both the firmware under review and the long-term capabilities of the engineer who wrote it
Experience coordinating with hardware, mobile app, cloud backend, and product teams on shared programs with competing priorities and deadlines
Clear, direct communication for technical decisions, schedule updates, and difficult conversations about scope, quality, or performance
BS in Electrical or Computer Engineering or equivalent demonstrated experience

Nice-to-haves

Prior formal people management including hiring, structured performance reviews, and career development planning
Experience with Agile firmware development processes adapted pragmatically to hardware-dependent schedules
Background in manufacturing support: factory test firmware, programming fixtures, and production line issue resolution
Familiarity with regulatory certification processes (FCC, CE) and their implications for firmware design