Firmware Engineering Manager

Key Responsibilities

People & Team Leadership

• Manage, mentor, and grow a team of firmware engineers, providing technical guidance, career development, and regular performance feedback.
• Set team priorities and roadmaps in partnership with product and hardware leadership, balancing technical debt, new feature work, and production readiness.
• Recruit and interview firmware engineering candidates as the team scales.
• Foster a collaborative, inclusive team culture that encourages knowledge-sharing and technical growth.

Technical & Individual Contribution

• Personally design and implement robust firmware on MCU platforms, ensuring support for wireless connectivity, data upload, OTA updates, sensor integration, and other core functionalities.
• Develop and optimize communication stacks for wireless protocols, ensuring reliable pairing, network configuration, and data exchange.
• Write efficient low-level code that integrates with hardware peripherals (e.g., RF modules, sensors) using standard interfaces such as GPIO, I2C, SPI, and UART.
• Apply best practices for error handling and performance optimization to support robust connectivity features.
• Work closely with cross-functional teams to rigorously debug, test, and troubleshoot firmware, ensuring optimal performance, reliability, and security.
• Engage actively with multidisciplinary teams, sharing insights and aligning on system-level requirements to drive cohesive project success.
• Drive the team's contributions to deployment readiness for large-scale production.
• Review code from team members and peers to maintain best practices in style, accuracy, and efficiency.

Required Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, or equivalent experience, with 5+ years in embedded systems development.
• Prior experience leading, managing, or mentoring engineers, or demonstrated readiness to step into a management role (e.g., tech lead experience).
• Deep understanding of computer networking and firmware for data-intensive applications.
• Strong expertise in C programming for embedded systems, with a solid grasp of memory management and real-time operating system principles.
• Proficiency in hardware-software interfacing, including protocols like GPIO, I2C, SPI, and JTAG.
• Proficiency with troubleshooting tools (debuggers, Wireshark) and measurement equipment (multimeters, oscilloscopes, logic analyzers).
• Demonstrated expertise in debugging and rigorous testing to quickly identify and resolve complex issues.
• Familiarity with version control, CI, and build systems.
• Excellent communication and interpersonal skills to foster a collaborative, team-oriented environment.

Preferred Skills

• Hands-on experience with connectivity modules (Wi-Fi, Bluetooth) and RTOS (FreeRTOS preferred).
• Experience with Jetson linux platform and ESP32 microcontrollers.
• Working knowledge of cloud computing protocols (e.g., MQTT) and platforms like AWS (AWS CDK is a plus).
• Experience with cellular connectivity.

Pay and benefits

The estimated base salary range for this position is $245-$280K, which does not include the value of benefits or a potential equity grant. A wide range of factors are considered in making compensation decisions, including but not limited to skill sets, market conditions, experience and training, licensure and certifications, and business and organizational needs.