Firmware Engineer

Oshen; Plymouth; On-site; GBP 65,000 - 95,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Competitive salary

Equity package

Relocation assistance

Professional growth opportunities

Job summary

Oshen in Plymouth, UK is building autonomous ocean-faring systems that operate months at sea. You will own the firmware for the C-Star platform and work closely with hardware, cloud, and product teams to deliver robust, power-aware software.

The role demands hands-on development on resource-constrained devices, strong debugging skills, and the ability to mentor junior engineers as the firmware team grows. Autonomy and high ownership are encouraged.

Qualifications

• Embedded firmware for production devices on resource-constrained systems.
• Experience with STM32 or ARM Cortex-M microcontrollers.
• RTOS experience, e.g., FreeRTOS, with inter-task communication.
• Ability to read schematics and debug at the hardware/software boundary.
• Collaborative development practices and documentation.

Responsibilities

• Own firmware systems for the C-Star platform.
• Design production-grade embedded software for deployed vessels.
• Evolve firmware architecture as fleet scales.
• Ensure reliability, performance, and power management.
• Develop testing, CI/CD, and containerised builds.
• Collaborate across electronics, hardware, cloud, and product teams.
• Mentor junior engineers and shape long-term roadmap.
• Debug hardware/software interactions in lab and field.

Skills

Embedded C/C++

RTOS experience

Software architecture

Hardware boundary debugging

Collaborative development

Independent work

Clear communication

Tools

Git

CI/CD

Testing frameworks

Job description

The biggest problems of today and our future rest on the ocean. Our weather and climate is mostly driven, and regulated, by the ocean. Extreme weather is born on its surface: hurricanes form, strengthen, and track across open water before they reach land. We collect real-time ocean data that feeds into forecast models, helping authorities predict storm intensity sooner and get people evacuated in time. That data saves lives.

Below the surface, the stakes are just as high. Undersea internet cables carry 99% of global data. Energy pipelines cross ocean floors. And in those dark waters, threats are growing — from dark ships to deliberate attacks on critical infrastructure. We can detect those threats at a scale and cost that has never been possible before.

Our solution: constellations of 1 metre, wind-powered autonomous robots, the ocean's eyes and ears. Persistent. Navigable. Deployable at scale. Finally giving humanity a live, continuous, wide area picture of the ocean we've always been missing.

Why This Role Matters

Our autonomous vessels spend months alone at sea. Every decision they make - from navigating changing sea states to collecting sensor data, communicating with shore, and managing power - depends on reliable embedded software.

What You'll Do

• Become a key technical owner of the firmware systems that power the C-Star platform
• Design and delivery of production-grade embedded software for deployed autonomous systems
• Contribute to the evolution of the firmware architecture as the platform and fleet continue to scale
• Firmware reliability, performance, power management, fleet update capability, and maintainability across deployed vessels
• Development of testing, CI/CD, containerised builds, code review, documentation, and collaborative development workflows
• Close collaboration with electronics, hardware, cloud, autonomy, and product teams to bridge firmware with the wider technology stack
• Debugging hardware/software interactions in the lab, on the bench, and in real deployment contexts
• Mentoring junior engineers as the firmware team grows and helping shape the long-term firmware roadmap

What We're Looking For

Must-Haves

• Strong embedded C/C++ firmware development experience on shipped, production products
• Experience developing firmware for resource-constrained embedded systems
• Experience with STM32 or comparable ARM Cortex-M microcontrollers
• RTOS experience, ideally FreeRTOS, including task management, queues, semaphores, and inter-task communication
• Strong software architecture and system design skills
• Comfortable working at the hardware/software boundary, including reading schematics, debugging on the bench, and working with SPI, I2C, UART, and similar protocols
• Experience with collaborative engineering practices such as Git workflows, code review, documentation, and maintainable development processes
• Ability to work independently in an ambiguous environment and make sound engineering decisions without heavy oversight
• Clear, structured communication and the ability to surface risks, unknowns, and blockers early

Nice-to-Haves

• Robotics, drones, aerospace, marine, defence, automotive, or IoT experience
• Autonomous systems, sensor fusion, GPS, IMU, acoustic, or environmental sensor experience
• Satellite communications, Iridium, RockBlock, LoRa, cellular, VHF, or other low-power wireless systems
• Low-power firmware design, duty cycling, and resource-constrained embedded systems
• Signal processing, acoustic analysis, edge compute, or embedded AI/ML experience
• Experience building development tooling, testing frameworks, CI/CD, or multi-developer firmware workflows

How You Work

You're a curious, hands-on engineer who enjoys solving difficult problems and taking ownership of outcomes. You communicate clearly, collaborate effectively across disciplines, and thrive in environments that value autonomy, trust, and continuous learning.

Why Join Oshen?

• Work on technology that tackles one of society’s biggest blind spots: understanding and monitoring the world’s oceans
• Build autonomous systems that need to survive for months at sea in some of the harshest environments on Earth
• Solve hard engineering problems across embedded systems, robotics, electronics, communications, and autonomy
• Join a small, intense team with high autonomy, high expectations, and real technical ownership
• See your work deployed in the real world, not sitting in a lab or waiting years, months, for release
• Be part of a company that has already delivered world first missions, delivers data that can help save lives, works with leading scientific and defence partners, and is now scaling its fleet

We're tackling engineering problems that don't have obvious answers. Success will need curiosity, resilience, collaboration, and a willingness to learn as we go. If you're motivated by difficult challenges, enjoy working with a high degree of autonomy, and want to build technology that has real-world impact, you'll feel at home at Oshen.

• Competitive salary, depending on experience
• Meaningful equity package for the right candidate
• Opportunity to work closely with the founders and a multidisciplinary engineering team
• Professional growth and development opportunities
• Mission-driven work with real-world impact

Working Model: In person in Plymouth, UK. Regular on-site presence is required for hardware-in-the-loop development, lab work, and collaboration with the physical C-Star platform.We're open to paying for relocation costs for the right candidate.