Principal Firmware Engineer

About the Role

We are seeking an experienced Principal Firmware Engineer professional to lead a team of firmware engineers responsible for developing low-level software that brings our silicon to life. In this role, you will manage and technically guide a team working on boot firmware, device drivers, real-time systems, and hardware abstraction layers for complex SoCs and semiconductor platforms.

You will play a critical role in silicon bring-up, system integration, and customer enablement, working closely with hardware, systems, and application teams to ensure reliable and high-performance operation of our products.

This role is ideal for a hands-on technical leader who enjoys building teams, shaping architecture, and solving complex hardware-software integration challenges.  This role is available in one of the locations below. 

Locations Available: Ottawa, ON – Córdoba, Argentina – Irvine, CA

Key Responsibilities:

• Lead and mentor a high-performing firmware engineering team, establishing best practices for code quality, testing, and documentation.
• Collaborate with application engineers to understand customer FW requirements
• Work closely with ASIC/SoC and Systems design teams in setting FW features and requirements
• Own firmware architecture across boot, BSP, and runtime environments.
• Design and develop Real-time Embedded Firmware features for coherent optical systems. Ensure firmware meets performance, reliability, and security requirements 
• Lead firmware support for new silicon bring-up, debugging complex hardware/software issues using lab tools.

• Drive firmware test automation and regression frameworks. And manage technical debt and long-term maintainability.

Required Qualifications

• Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Computer Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Computer Science, or related field.
• 8+ years of experience in embedded/firmware development.
• 3+ years of experience leading or managing engineering teams.
• Strong hands-on expertise in:
• Programming: C/C++
• Operating environments: Embedded Linux or RTOS (FreeRTOS, Zephyr, VxWorks)
• Boot architecture: U‑Boot, custom multi‑stage boot flows
• Low‑level SoC and hardware interfaces: PCIe, Ethernet, I2C, SPI, UART
• Memory subsystems: DDR, HBM
• Debug and analysis tools: tracing, profiling, logging, and hardware/software debuggability

• Experience with silicon bring-up, board bring-up, and complex firmware debugging.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience working in coherent optical systems, silicon photonics, or semiconductor platform companies.
• Knowledge of:
  • CMIS (Common Management Interface Specification) standards for optical modules
  • RISC V architecture (SiFive or similar)
• Familiarity with:
  • FPGA and emulation platforms for pre silicon validation
  • Lab bring up tools, including JTAG debuggers, logic analyzers, and oscilloscopes
  • UVM based verification environments and SystemVerilog test methodologies

 

Salary Range for US 

$150,000 - $250,000 Base Annually 
The final offer will be determined based on job-related skills, experience, qualifications, and location.