Senior Firmware Engineer to help raise the bar on the connected oven at the heart of every Tovala kitchen. You9ll partner with our firmware lead (5+ years on the team) as a true peer and own meaningful slices of the fleet end-to-end. We run two oven fleets in parallel: a mature legacy fleet, built on the Electric Imp stack coded in Squirrel powering most of our installed base, and a new fleet built on our in-house IoT stack, utilizing ESP32, C and AWS. You9ll focus on keeping the legacy fleet healthy and de-risking changes, while contributing to the new fleet as it grows.
AI-assisted development is reshaping how our team works, and we expect the same on firmware. You should have hands-on experience with tools like Claude Code, Cursor, or Copilot and strong opinions on applying them well in embedded contexts where the constraints differ from typical web/backend work.
What You9ll Do- Design, build, test, and ship firmware for our connected ovens - starting with the Electric Imp / Squirrel fleet that serves the majority of our customers today, and contributing to our new ESP32 based platform as it scales.
- Own bug fixes, feature additions, and performance/efficiency improvements end-to-end - from scoping through lab testing, staged fleet rollout, and production monitoring.
- Write, monitor and maintain automated firmware test pipelines.
- Design and execute test plans on the bench and on real fleet subsets. We push firmware to tens of thousands of ovens in customers9 kitchens, and we take that seriously.
- Use AI-assisted development tools as a core part of how you work - for code generation, debugging, test scaffolding, log analysis, and documentation - while applying the judgment that embedded work demands.
- Collaborate closely with our thermal, mechanical, and quality engineers, our manufacturing and ops partners, and our backend team to root-cause issues that span the full stack - firmware, hardware, cloud, and the factory floor.
- Help evolve our firmware development practices: code review standards, test infrastructure, release processes, and how we incorporate AI tooling responsibly.
- Document and communicate clearly so your work is durable, your tradeoffs are visible, and your teammates can build on top of what you ship.
What You9ll BringRequired- 5+ years of professional firmware or embedded software engineering experience, including shipping firmware to a fleet of internet-connected devices in production.
- Strong fundamentals in C/C++ and embedded systems - RTOS, memory, timing, interrupts, real-time constraints, and the discipline that comes with code running on devices you can9t easily reach.
- Experience working in Python, Bash for build tooling as well as testing automation
- Comfort working with (or willingness to quickly learn) the Squirrel programming language and the Electric Imp platform.
- Experience with common embedded interfaces and protocols: I2C, SPI, UART, and the network stacks (BLE, Wi-Fi, TLS, MQTT/HTTPS) that connected products depend on.
- Experience with CICD and automated test workflows, ideally Github automations and workflows..
- Demonstrated, hands-on experience with AI-assisted software development. You9ve integrated AI tools into your daily workflow and can speak concretely about how they9ve changed the way you build, test, and debug firmware.
- Excellent communication skills. You can explain technical decisions and tradeoffs clearly to engineers, hardware partners, and non-technical stakeholders, and you write things down.
- Strong problem-solving instincts - you dig into root causes, think about second-order effects, and find pragmatic solutions in messy real-world systems.
- A degree in computer engineering, computer science, electrical engineering, or commensurate experience.
Nice to Have- Direct experience with Electric Imp OS and Squirrel.
- Experience with ESP32 and modern embedded toolchains (ESP-IDF, FreeRTOS).
- Experience with cloud IoT infrastructure - AWS IoT Core, device shadows, OTA pipelines, telemetry ingestion - even at a contributing rather than owning level.
- Familiarity with web technologies both front end and back end as well as databases - Typescript, React, Flask, Go, SQL
- Manufacturing and factory tooling: Experience building or supporting the systems that flash, provision, and verify firmware on the production line, and debugging them remotely with overseas manufacturing partners across time zones.
- Hardware-adjacent skills: For example, ability to read schematics and PCB layouts, comfort on a bench with an oscilloscope and logic analyzer, ability to spec an alternate component, basic familiarity with switch-mode power supplies.
- Experience working in a connected consumer product or food-tech company.
Who You Are- Solution-Minded: You focus on outcomes, not output. You want to understand the customer problem before you start writing firmware, and you9re not precious about your approach if a better one emerges.
- AI-Forward: You see AI tools as a fundamental shift in how software - firmware included - gets built. You9re already using them daily and have thoughts on how teams should adopt them in safety-conscious, hardware-adjacent contexts.
- Cross-Functional Collaborator: You thrive working alongside hardware, thermal, quality, manufacturing, ops, and backend teammates. You communicate clearly and care about the end-to-end product experience.
- Startup Mindset: You9re comfortable in an environment where priorities evolve and where your work has direct, visible impact on customers9 kitchens.
- Curious and Adaptive: You stay current on hardware, firmware, and AI tooling, and you have a favorite microprocessor brand - maybe even a favorite oscilloscope brand.
LocationThis role is hybrid with a strong preference for candidates based in or near Chicago, IL (HQ) or Urbana, IL (The Product Manufactory, our R&D and prototyping shop). For the right candidate, primarily remote work is possible, provided you have your own electronics bench and equipment.
Compensation & Benefits$115,000 - $140,000 a year
Tovala uses market data, geography, and placement of internal employees to determine salary. Additionally, we offer all employees real ownership in the company in the form of a competitive equity package.
- Flexible paid time off (with a minimum of 15 days off you are highly encouraged to take)
- Comprehensive healthcare coverage we really invest in
- 401k with match
- Free Tovala Smart Oven and discounted Tovala meals
- Paid holidays and our winter holiday office shutdown where the offices and facilities close for a week around Christmas and New Years
- Various other perks - recognition programs, continued learning stipend, casual dress code, in-office coffee, snacks and drinks, and Tovala swag
