Senior Firmware Engineer

Orion Electrotech Ltd; Cambourne; Hybrid; GBP 65,000 - 90,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Hybrid Working

25 days holiday bank holidays

Birthday day off

Health Insurance

Death in Service Insurance

Job summary

Orion Electrotech Ltd seeks a Senior Firmware Engineer to lead a small team and own embedded firmware for IoT devices from sensor to cloud. You will design and maintain C/C++ and Python code, collaborate with hardware engineers, and drive MQTT/LoRaWAN integration and AWS IoT Core connectivity.

You will implement robust testing, CI/CD practices, and code-quality improvements while exploring new technologies to enhance product performance and reliability. Hybrid working arrangements are offered.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's or Master's degree in Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, or a related field.
• Mid to Senior level engineer with strong firmware background.
• Strong proficiency in C/C++ and Python programming.
• Experience with STM32 microcontrollers and ARM Cortex-M toolchains.
• Familiarity with IoT protocols (MQTT, LoRaWAN) and cloud integration (AWS IoT Core).
• Excellent debugging skills for hardware and firmware.
• Experience with version control systems (Git) and static code analysis tools.
• Strong problem-solving and communications skills.
• Experience defining and implementing firmware test approaches, including automated and on-hardware testing.
• Experience with binary protocol design and decoding packed sensor payloads.

Responsibilities

• Contribute to firmware development and share best practices with the team.
• Design, develop, and maintain embedded firmware for IoT devices using C/C++ and Python.
• Collaborate with hardware engineers to ensure firmware/hardware integration.
• Implement and optimise MQTT and LoRaWAN communications.
• Integrate firmware with cloud platforms such as AWS IoT Core.
• Analyse and debug complex hardware and firmware issues.
• Maintain existing codebases and improve documentation and code quality.
• Apply CI/CD and static analysis to ensure code stability.
• Explore new technologies to improve product performance.
• Maintain firmware test regimes including unit, integration and on-hardware testing.
• Build modules to decode and unpack raw device payloads into structured data.
• Interrogate device data to validate firmware behaviour and support data analysis.

Skills

C/C++

Python

STM32

IoT protocols

AWS IoT Core

Debugging

Git

CI/CD

Problem solving

Communication

Firmware testing

Binary payload decoding

RTOS

OTA firmware updates

BLE/WiFi

Education

Bachelor's or Master's in CS / Electrical Engineering

Tools

Git

CI/CD pipelines

Static code analysis

Job description

Job Description:

We are seeking a highly skilled Senior Firmware Engineer for our firmware development team. The ideal candidate will have extensive experience in IoT, a strong background in hardware, proficiency in C/C and Python, and the breadth to work with device data from the sensor through to the cloud. The successful candidate will be responsible for the firmware development process, ensuring the delivery of robust and efficient code, and collaborating with cross-functional teams to drive innovation.

This role offers an exciting opportunity to lead a small team of firmware engineers, work on cutting-edge IoT projects, and make a significant impact on our products. The successful candidate will take on our established firmware platform, its test regime and the code that processes data coming off our devices, with a structured handover and support from the existing team. If you are passionate about embedded systems, have a strong technical background, and thrive in a collaborative environment, we encourage you to apply.

Key Responsibilities:

• Contribute to firmware development, sharing technical knowledge and best practice with other team members.
• Design, develop, and maintain embedded firmware for IoT devices using C/C and Python
• Collaborate with hardware engineers to ensure seamless integration between firmware and hardware
• Implement and optimise communication protocols such as MQTT and LoRaWAN
• Integrate firmware solutions with cloud platforms, such as AWS IoT Core
• Analyse and debug complex hardware and firmware issues
• Maintain existing codebases, improving documentation and code quality where required
• Implement version control best practices, CI/CD and utilise static code analysis tools to ensure code stability
• Continuously explore and evaluate new technologies to improve product performance and functionality
• Maintain and develop the firmware test regime, including unit, integration and on-hardware testing, and the validation process used ahead of each release
• Build and maintain the software modules that decode and unpack raw device payloads into structured, validated data
• Interrogate device data where needed to validate firmware behaviour and diagnose field issues, and support colleagues undertaking wider data analysis

Experience

• Bachelor's or Master's degree in Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, or a related field
• Mid to Senior level engineer
• Strong proficiency in C/C and Python programming
• Strong experience with STM32 microcontrollers and the surrounding toolchain (or a comparable ARM Cortex-M family)
• Strong familiarity with IoT protocols, such as MQTT and LoRaWAN
• with cloud integration, preferably with AWS IoT Core
• Excellent debugging skills for hardware and firmware issues
• Familiarity with version control systems (e.g., Git) and static code analysis tools
• Strong problem-solving skills
• Excellent communication and team working skills
• Experience defining and implementing firmware test approaches, including automated and on-hardware testing
• Experience with binary protocol design and decoding of packed sensor payloads

Desirable Skills:

• Domain knowledge within the rail, energy or mining sectors
• Experience in implementing low-power modes and optimising power consumption
• Comfort analysing device data in Python (e.g. pandas) to support engineering and product decisions
• Familiarity with real-time operating systems (RTOS) and their implementation
• Familiarity with designing, implementing and maintaining OTA firmware update mechanisms
• Experience with wireless communication technologies (e.g., BLE, Wi-Fi)
• Understanding of secure coding practices and encryption algorithms
• Engagement with the wider embedded or IoT community, for example open-source contributions, talks or technical writing

Working Arrangements:Hours: Monday to Friday, 08:30 to 17:30.

Benefits:

• Hybrid Working
• 25 days holiday bank holidays
• Birthday day off
• Health Insurance
• Death in Service Insurance