Staff Embedded Firmware Engineer - Platform Controller (Zephyr RTOS)

Lumilens

$180K — $216K *
Information Technology
8 - 10 years of experience
Job Overview by Ladders

Qualifications

  • 8-10 years of embedded firmware development experience, particularly in C, with some exposure to C++ or Rust.
  • Hands-on experience with RTOS on 32-bit microcontrollers, including Arm Cortex-M or RISC-V architectures.
  • Thorough understanding of serial protocols like I2C, SPI, UART, and their potential issues.
  • Proficient in debugging tools such as JTAG/SWD, oscilloscopes, and logic analyzers.
  • Familiarity with development tools including Git, GCC/Clang, CMake, and Python.
  • Knowledge of applied AI/ML, particularly in model training, deployment workflows, and the implications of using ML in control systems.
  • Bachelor's or Master's degree in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, Computer Science, or a related field.

Responsibilities

  • Design, implement, and maintain firmware for the platform management controller using Zephyr RTOS.
  • Review and upstream device drivers to ensure compliance with Zephyr's standards.
  • Implement ML inference for anomaly detection and predictive fault analysis, ensuring robust integration with firmware.
  • Handle post-silicon bring-up activities, including debugging and validation processes.
  • Utilize JTAG/SWD and other tools to debug complex issues in firmware and hardware interactions.
  • Enhance CI processes through unit tests and hardware-in-the-loop regression tests.
  • Produce clear and reliable documentation, including design docs and release notes.

Benefits

  • Opportunity to work with innovative technology on next-generation silicon.
  • Engagement in a collaborative, multi-disciplinary team environment.
  • Potential for equity in the form of stock options linked to the company's growth.
  • Significant impact on product development from pre-silicon to production release.
Full Job Description
Role Overview

We are building the firmware that runs on our platform management controller: a Zephyr-based system responsible for power sequencing, rail telemetry, board health, and secure boot on next-generation silicon. This Staff Embedded Firmware Engineer - Platform Controller (Zephyr RTOS) owns firmware from pre-silicon bring-up through production release, working shoulder-to-shoulder with design, DV, and systems teams.

What you'll do

  • Design, implement, and maintain Zephyr RTOS firmware for platform management controller, including device drivers, subsystem integration, and application-level services.
  • Write and upstream-quality-review drivers against Zephyr's driver model - devicetree bindings, Kconfig, init levels and priorities, struct device APIs.
  • Deploy and maintain lightweight ML inference on target for anomaly detection and predictive fault analysis; own the path from trained model to running firmware.
  • Perform post-silicon bring-up: first-boot debug, clock and reset validation, bus enumeration, triage of RTL-versus-firmware ambiguity with design teams.
  • Debug hard problems using JTAG/SWD, ETM/ITM trace, protocol analyzers, and logic analyzers - including intermittent, timing-dependent, and multi-master bus failures.
  • Build and extend CI: unit tests, Twister test suites, hardware-in-the-loop regression, static analysis gates.
  • Write the documentation your teammates and customers will actually rely on - design docs, bring-up guides, register-level notes, release notes.


Required qualifications

  • 8-10 years of professional embedded firmware development in C, with meaningful exposure to modern C++ or Rust.
  • Deep, hands-on RTOS experience on 32-bit microcontrollers (Arm Cortex-M or RISCV) - scheduling, priority assignment, ISR design, synchronization primitives, and the failure modes each one produces.
  • Strong grasp of serial protocols at the wire level: I2C, SPI, UART - arbitration, clock stretching, timing parameters, and how they break.
  • Practical debugging skill with JTAG/SWD debuggers, oscilloscopes, logic analyzers, and protocol decoders.
  • Comfort with the toolchain: Git, GCC/Clang, CMake, Python scripting, and CI systems.
  • Applied AI/ML knowledge - at minimum, a working understanding of model training and deployment workflows, quantization and its accuracy cost, inference latency and memory budgeting on constrained targets, and honest judgment about when ML is and is not the right tool for a control problem.
  • BS or MS in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, Computer Science, or equivalent practical experience.


Preferred qualifications

Strong candidates will have direct experience with several of the following. We do not expect all of them.

RTOS and platform

  • Zephyr RTOS in production: devicetree, Kconfig, west workspaces, SYS_INIT and device init ordering, Twister, upstream contribution history.
  • Bare-metal and boot-path firmware, including boot ROM code, secure boot chains, and ROM-to-application handoff.
  • On-chip bus fabric familiarity - AMBA APB / AHB - and what a fabric-level stall or misconfigured bridge looks like from the firmware side.

Peripherals and subsystems

  • PMBus and SMBus - command sets, PEC, ALERT handling, multi-master and bus-recovery behavior.
  • QSPI flash: XIP, DMA-driven transfers, dual/quad modes, flash programming and update paths.
  • GPIO expanders and pin multiplexing; PWM and PIT/timer peripherals for control loops and precise sequencing.
  • Watchdog design - windowed watchdogs, task-level petting strategies, and failure-mode analysis.
  • Interrupt controller configuration nested and prioritized interrupts, latency measurement and reduction.
  • Telemetry subsystem design: ADC sampling strategy, calibration, scaling, and out-of-band reporting.
  • Debug and trace infrastructure - ETM/ITM, SWO, coresight, trace-based performance and timing analysis.
  • AI based coding experience is must


Compesation

The compensation range shown below represents total target cash compensation and includes both base salary and target bonus. Actual compensation will vary based on factors such as experience, skills, qualifications, job level, and work location.

In addition to cash compensation, this position is eligible for equity in the form of stock options, giving you the opportunity to share in the Company's long-term growth and success.

The pay range for this role is:

180,000 - 216,000 USD per year (US)

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