RTOS Firmware Engineer

Firmware Engineer Mid-level (L4 equivalent) 2-5 years

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The job description

Tech stack. FreeRTOS, Zephyr, ThreadX internals, task architecture design, inter-task communication patterns, real-time scheduling analysis, tickless idle power modes, MPU memory protection, kernel tracing tools

About the role

You will specialize in real-time operating systems: the task architectures, scheduling designs, and inter-task communication patterns that make complex firmware reliable, responsive, and maintainable. RTOS engineers go deeper on the kernel than anyone else on the team: priority schemes, synchronization primitives, memory protection configuration, and the timing analysis that proves deadlines will be met under worst-case conditions. You will design task architectures for products running dozens of concurrent activities, debug the subtle race conditions and priority inversions that other engineers cannot find, and establish RTOS engineering practices the entire team follows with confidence.

What you will achieve

Design robust RTOS task architectures: clean task decomposition, principled priority assignment, and IPC patterns that remain understandable and maintainable as products grow
Deliver verified real-time performance: formal scheduling analysis, worst-case latency measurements, and deadline compliance demonstrated through rigorous testing
Eliminate entire classes of concurrency defects through disciplined primitive usage, static analysis enforcement, and runtime verification with professional tracing tools
Optimize RTOS resource consumption: stack sizes validated by high-water-mark measurement, tickless idle for power savings, and lean kernel configurations
Establish durable team RTOS standards: proven coding patterns, review checklists, and debugging playbooks that raise everyone's real-time engineering competence

What you will bring

Must-haves

2 to 5 years developing production firmware on FreeRTOS, Zephyr, ThreadX, or a comparable RTOS in shipping products
Deep understanding of real-time scheduling theory: priority schemes, preemption behavior, rate-monotonic analysis, and deadline reasoning under overload
Experience with synchronization primitives in practice: mutexes, semaphores, queues, event flags, and knowing precisely when each is appropriate
Knowledge of classic RTOS failure modes: priority inversion, deadlock, stack overflow, and tick suppression bugs, with proven prevention strategies
Proficiency with RTOS-aware debugging techniques: thread-aware breakpoints, kernel object inspection, and execution trace analysis with professional tools
Ability to perform credible timing analysis: measuring task execution profiles, interrupt latencies, and demonstrating schedulability convincingly
BS in Electrical or Computer Engineering

Nice-to-haves

Experience with Zephyr's device driver model and devicetree-based hardware configuration
Familiarity with MPU-based memory protection and privilege separation techniques on microcontrollers
Knowledge of safety-certified RTOS variants such as SAFERTOS and their qualification processes
Experience with multicore AMP or SMP architectures on embedded application processors