Director, Firmware and Hardware EngineeringAustin, TX • On-site, Monday-Friday
As Director, Firmware and Hardware Engineering, you'll provide unified technical leadership across firmware, electronics, and mechanical engineering for a small, senior team building rugged, field-deployed embedded systems. You'll be the integration point between disciplines - setting the firmware architecture and system-level design standards, catching issues on the bench before they reach the field, and driving AI-first practices into how the team designs, tests, and documents its work. This is a player-coach role: you'll balance strategic, system-level leadership with hands-on technical direction, without becoming the critical path yourself.
What You'll Do:- Provide strategic leadership across firmware, electronics, and mechanical engineering so the team ships one integrated customer-facing system - not three disciplines that only come together at the end
- Champion an AI-first design framework across hardware, firmware, and mechanical work, embedding AI into how the team designs, reviews, and documents
- Set and hold the firmware standard - architecture, coding practice, and field-release hygiene - while staying electronics-literate and mechanically fluent enough to direct schematic, bring-up, packaging, DFM, and contract-manufacturer decisions as system decisions
- Require co-design and early system validation across disciplines, catching issues on the bench/HIL while designs can still change
- Oversee execution of firmware, electronics, and mechanical programs from concept through production and field performance, as a player-coach rather than the critical-path implementer
- Foster system-level ownership, holding engineers accountable for how their work performs in the finished product, not just their own discipline's output
- Establish and monitor KPIs for schedule, quality, field issues, and firmware release health
- Make and document the system-level trade-off calls between firmware, electronics, and mechanical work, guided by customer outcomes like accuracy, battery life, survivability, and installability
- Enable your senior Firmware Test Automation engineer to own embedded test architecture (HIL, automation, CI) as a first-class system used from early bring-up onward
- Oversee resource allocation, priorities, and budget across firmware, electronics, and mechanical work, including lab/HIL needs, contractors, and manufacturing partners
- Maintain living system documentation - pin maps, power/thermal budgets, antenna/mechanical keep-outs, and test interfaces - visible across all disciplines
- Lead a small multi-discipline engineering team spanning firmware, electronics, and mechanical, including a senior Firmware Test Automation engineer
- Grow firmware and system capability through hiring, mentoring, and a high review bar; coach engineers across all disciplines to think and validate at the system level
- Own high-severity field issues as system-level problems, driving root cause analysis that closes the loop into design and earlier system-level testing
- Partner with Product to champion technician- and user-centered design decisions
- Model AI proficiency personally and drive team-wide adoption, measured by cycle time and defect outcomes rather than tool count
- You'll also invest in your own growth - staying current with embedded systems, HIL/system-validation practice, and AI-assisted design review, and building relationships across the broader engineering community.
Requirements
What You'll Need to Succeed: - A bachelor's degree in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, Computer Science, or a related field - or an equivalent combination of education and demonstrated embedded-product experience
- 10+ years developing shipped embedded products, with deep firmware expertise: C/C++ on microcontrollers, RTOS or disciplined bare-metal, HAL/drivers, bootloaders and field firmware update, low-power operation, and connectivity integration (serial, BLE, cellular, satellite, and/or GPS/GNSS)
- 2+ years leading engineers as a people manager or technical lead of a small hardware/firmware team, comfortable operating as a player-coach
- Electronics literacy sufficient to lead schematic and layout reviews, board bring-up, and mixed-signal/power trade-offs (ADC, isolation, EMI, power budget)
- Mechanical fluency sufficient to set packaging requirements (ingress, thermal, antenna keep-outs, service access), judge DFM, and direct contract-manufacturer mechanical work
- Demonstrated daily use of AI tools in engineering or engineering-management work, with a track record of driving team-wide adoption with measurable effect
- A track record of taking products from concept through production and field performance, including ownership of customer or field issues
- Experience leading or partnering with a senior embedded/firmware test-automation or HIL engineer - setting outcomes and early system validation, not treating them as end-of-line QA
- Experience coaching firmware, electronics, and mechanical contributors to co-design and validate at the system level early, rather than working in sequential handoffs with late integration testing
Nice to Have:- Industrial instrumentation, test and measurement, or rugged outdoor electronics experience (low-power, wide temperature, surge/EMI-adjacent environments)
- Hardware-in-the-loop, firmware CI, and design-for-test experience (test points, diagnostic interfaces) on MCU-class products
- Experience shipping products where measurement accuracy, wireless/GPS, power, and packaging had to be traded off as one system
- Cellular, satellite, BLE, and GPS/GNSS integration on MCU-class products - not only Linux/Android gateways or mobile apps
- Experience directing mechanical contractors or a contract manufacturer on enclosures and production documentation
- People leadership of mixed firmware, electrical, and mechanical contributors on a small team
What We Can Offer You: - Competitive Medical/Dental/Vision Insurance
- Company Provided Life and Disability Insurance
- Paid Family Leave
- Matching 401k
- Supportive and collaborative work environment
- A rewarding culture with a focus on positive business practices and protecting the environment
