Senior Embedded Firmware Engineer – ARM/FPGA & Real-Time

VIAVI Solutions; Ottawa; On-site; CAD 88,000 - 163,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Health insurance

401(k) plan

Bonus program

Job summary

VIAVI Solutions is seeking a Senior Firmware Developer to join the Fiber Optic Production Lab Test (FOPLT) engineering team in Ottawa. You will design, develop, debug, and maintain embedded firmware for the MAP modular optical test platform and its cassette ecosystem, spanning ARM/Linux to FPGA interfaces.

The role requires 7+ years of embedded firmware experience, strong C/C++, ARM/DSP expertise, and FPGA interfacing.

Qualifications

• BS or MS in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, or related field.
• 7+ years of embedded firmware development experience.
• Strong proficiency in C and C++ for embedded systems (bare‑metal and Linux).
• Hands‑on experience with ARM and/or DSP processor architectures.
• Experience with FPGA interfacing (register‑level, SPI/I2C/memory‑mapped I/O); HDL (Verilog or VHDL) reading ability preferred.
• Solid understanding of serial communication protocols: I2C, SPI, UART, USB.
• Experience with embedded Linux (kernel configuration, device trees, cross‑compilation, driver development).
• Proficiency with debugging tools: JTAG, oscilloscopes, logic analyzers, serial consoles.
• Familiarity with version control (Git) and CI/CD build systems.

Responsibilities

• Cassette Firmware Development: Develop and maintain firmware for ARM‑based cassettes (embedded Linux, C/C++) and DSP‑based cassettes (uClinux, C/C++).
• Implement SCPI command protocol handlers for instrument control and measurement data acquisition.
• Develop multi‑threaded real‑time signal processing pipelines using FFT, DSP, and SIMD optimizations.
• Interface with optical hardware components via I2C, SPI, UART, and USB.
• FPGA Interfacing & Development: Interface cassette firmware with FPGA co‑processors for signal processing, optical triggering, and hardware acceleration via memory‑mapped registers.
• Maintain and enhance the MAP platform PCIe bridge FPGA (Verilog) which provides bus translation between the host processor and cassette backplane.
• Debug FPGA register‑level interactions and timing issues across SPI and PCIe domains.
• Microcontroller Firmware: Develop firmware for bridge board microcontrollers (C) that manage FPGA programming, card‑present detection, I2C register interfaces, and chassis power sequencing.
• Maintain power management microcontroller firmware controlling chassis power rails, standby/power‑cycle sequencing, and watchdog functionality.
• Kernel & System‑Level Work: Contribute to Linux kernel and device tree customization on the chassis controller.
• Debug and resolve hardware‑software integration issues including I2C bus contention, display pipeline conflicts, IRQ handling, and power management.
• Develop and maintain system services, udev rules, and shell scripts for chassis lifecycle management (boot, hot‑plug, reboot, shutdown).
• Cross‑Functional Collaboration: Work closely with hardware engineers on board bring‑up, schematic review, and signal integrity debugging.
• Collaborate with the software team on communication between cassette firmware and the web GUI / front panel applications.
• Support manufacturing with calibration firmware, production test scripts, and factory provisioning tools.
• Leverage AI‑augmented development workflows (e.g., AI coding assistants) to accelerate firmware development, debugging, analysis and unit‑testing.

Skills

Embedded firmware

C/C++

ARM/DSP

FPGA interfacing

Linux kernel

Serial protocols

Education

BS or MS in Electrical/Computer Engineering

Tools

Verilog/VHDL

Git/CI/CD

JTAG

Docker/Buildroot/Yocto

Job description

VIAVI Solutions is seeking a Senior Firmware Developer to join the Fiber Optic Production Lab Test (FOPLT) engineering team in Ottawa. You will design, develop, debug, and maintain embedded firmware for the MAP modular optical test platform and its cassette ecosystem, spanning ARM/Linux to FPGA interfaces.

The role requires 7+ years of embedded firmware experience, strong C/C++, ARM/DSP expertise, and FPGA interfacing.