Embedded / Firmware Engineer

Embedded Software Engineer — General Talent Network

Role Overview

We are looking for strong embedded and low-level software engineers who can build reliable software at the boundary between hardware and software. This is a general opportunity used to identify engineers for roles across robotics, autonomous systems, aerospace, defense technology, industrial systems, connected devices, and other hardware-focused companies.

Relevant candidates may specialize in microcontroller firmware, embedded Linux, device drivers, operating systems, real-time systems, controls, communications, or platform software. Candidates are not expected to have experience across every area listed below.

What You May Work On

• Develop embedded software and firmware in C, C++, Rust, or another systems programming language.
• Build software for microcontrollers, processors, SoCs, or embedded Linux platforms.
• Perform board bring-up and integrate new processors, sensors, actuators, radios, and peripherals.
• Develop and debug device drivers, hardware abstraction layers, bootloaders, BSPs, kernel modules, or system services.
• Design real-time, concurrent, event-driven, or state-machine-based systems.
• Work with communication interfaces and protocols such as SPI, I²C, UART, CAN, USB, Ethernet, TCP/IP, MAVLink, or similar technologies.
• Diagnose problems spanning software, firmware, electronics, networking, timing, and physical hardware.
• Build testing infrastructure, including unit, integration, simulation, hardware-in-the-loop, and automated hardware testing.
• Improve system reliability, performance, security, observability, power consumption, and resource utilization.
• Support firmware deployment, factory programming, OTA updates, rollback, secure boot, or device provisioning.
• Collaborate closely with electrical, mechanical, robotics, systems, manufacturing, and test engineers.
• Take systems from prototype and initial bring-up through deployment, production, or field operation.

Core Qualifications

• Professional or substantial project experience developing embedded, firmware, or low-level systems software.
• Strong programming ability in C, C++, Rust, or a comparable systems language.
• Understanding of how software interacts with processors, memory, peripherals, operating systems, and physical hardware.
• Experience debugging problems on real hardware using tools such as GDB, JTAG, oscilloscopes, logic analyzers, protocol analyzers, or equivalent tools.
• Working knowledge of embedded constraints such as timing, concurrency, memory, compute, power, thermal limits, reliability, and fault handling.
• Ability to read technical documentation, datasheets, schematics, register maps, or hardware specifications.
• Evidence of meaningful technical ownership, such as shipping a product, deploying a system, completing a major subsystem, or carrying hardware through bring-up and testing.
• Ability to work effectively across software and hardware disciplines.

Relevant Areas of Experience

Strong candidates will typically demonstrate depth in one or more of the following areas:

• Bare-metal microcontroller development.
• ARM Cortex-M or comparable MCU platforms.
• RTOS environments such as FreeRTOS, Zephyr, VxWorks, QNX, RTIC, or Embassy.
• Embedded Linux, Android/AOSP, Yocto, Buildroot, BSPs, kernel development, or system services.
• Device drivers, HALs, bootloaders, boot chains, firmware packaging, or board support.
• Interrupts, DMA, timers, clocks, memory maps, linker scripts, and low-power modes.
• Sensors, motor controls, actuators, robotics, autonomy, or electromechanical systems.
• Networking, IPC/RPC, distributed embedded systems, or low-latency communications.
• Real-time, safety-critical, fault-tolerant, or high-reliability systems.
• Secure boot, device identity, encryption, signing, provisioning, or system hardening.
• Host-based testing, simulation, CI/CD, hardware-in-the-loop testing, or production test infrastructure.
• Aerospace, defense, robotics, autonomous vehicles, automotive, medical devices, industrial systems, energy, or consumer hardware.

Indicators of a Strong Candidate

The strongest candidates generally demonstrate:

• Deep understanding of low-level systems rather than only application-layer development.
• Hands-on experience debugging real hardware and hardware/software interactions.
• Ownership of meaningful systems from design or bring-up through deployment.
• The ability to explain technical tradeoffs involving performance, timing, memory, reliability, safety, and maintainability.
• A track record of solving ambiguous, multidisciplinary engineering problems.
• Strong fundamentals that transfer across processors, languages, operating systems, and product domains.
• Experience shipping systems that operate reliably outside a development environment.
• Prior experience at a defense prime, aerospace or robotics company, or hardware-focused startup—including companies such as Anduril or Palantir—can be a positive contextual signal. However, company pedigree should be weighted lightly and never substituted for evaluating the candidate’s actual technical depth, hands-on ownership, and impact.

Important Evaluation Guidance

Candidates should be evaluated on the depth, complexity, ownership, and real-world impact of their work—not simply on keyword overlap with this description.

A candidate can score highly through deep microcontroller firmware experience, embedded Linux and OS expertise, robotics or controls software, low-level platform development, or another comparable embedded specialization. Do not penalize candidates merely for lacking a particular language, RTOS, processor family, industry background, degree, clearance, or protocol unless it is required by a specific client role.

Pure application, cloud, web, data, or general backend experience should not receive a high embedded score unless the candidate also demonstrates meaningful low-level, hardware-facing, or resource-constrained systems experience.