Staff Firmware Engineer

ZipRecruiter; Cardiff; On-site; GBP 60,000 - 80,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading company in Cardiff seeks a Staff Engineer with expertise in embedded firmware development. The role involves designing cryptographic solutions and collaborating within an Agile team. Candidates should have significant experience and skills in embedded programming, particularly in C and C#. This position offers opportunities for mentoring and engaging in complex project design.

Qualifications

• Minimum of 7+ years of related industry experience.
• Ability to mentor other engineers in design and development.

Responsibilities

• Design and implement embedded firmware and test solutions primarily in C and C#.
• Collaborate effectively within a team environment.
• Engage with cross-functional teams such as Product, Design, and Analytics.

Skills

Embedded Programming

Communication

Problem Solving

Education

Engineering degree

Tools

Jenkins

Python

Job description

Job Description

A Staff Engineer with embedded firmware development and debugging skills is required for our design centre in Cardiff.

Working in a small, versatile Agile team, the candidate's work will involve product design and sustaining activities on a range of Third Millennium’s RFID access control products. Previous experience designing cryptographic code for secure applications would be highly desirable.

The candidate needs to manage their time effectively to support work on various products at different lifecycle stages and collaborate well with colleagues both onsite and overseas. Occasional travel may be required.

Staff Engineer is a role for a grounded and reliable engineer who is a master of their specific domain, capable of owning technical design for projects of moderate complexity, understanding tradeoffs in creating high-quality work, output, or products. They are aware of and self-learn industry best practices and trends and have acquired at least one major skill outside their primary area of expertise.

This engineer demonstrates initiative beyond task completion; they identify and suggest areas for future work, supporting their ideas with evidence and building cases for these ideas.

Duties and Responsibilities include:

1. Design and implement embedded firmware and test solutions primarily in C and C#.
2. Design and implement cryptographic solutions.
3. Create design documentation.
4. Work hands-on with debugging embedded systems.
5. Collaborate effectively within a team environment.
6. Work with minimal oversight, breaking down complex scenarios into manageable sub-tasks.
7. Communicate technical decisions through design documents, white papers, and social media platforms.
8. Engage with cross-functional teams such as Product, Design, and Analytics.
9. Proactively identify issues in requirements and communicate early to facilitate course correction.

Required Knowledge / Experience:

1. Ability to verify product software requirements considering hardware capabilities.
2. Mentor other engineers in low-level (firmware) or high-level (software) design and development.
3. Understand, maintain, and create designs for mid-size projects.
4. Provide solutions to complex issues.
5. Fluent in embedded programming in C and C#.
6. Proficient in low-level (firmware) or high-level (software) development techniques.
7. Experience with software version control.
8. Knowledge of TDD and unit testing approaches.
9. Experience with ARM cores or PIC microcontrollers.
10. Good understanding of CI/CD processes.
11. Ability to solve security and SSDL-related issues.
12. Demonstrated experience with firmware/software development processes.
13. Implementation experience of cryptographic solutions, including symmetric and ideally PKI asymmetric cryptography.

Education and/or Experience:

1. Engineering degree or equivalent, or suitable experience.
2. Minimum of 7+ years of related industry experience.

Additional beneficial skills/experience:

• Protocols: Smart Card ISO7816, RFID ISO 14443/15693, I2C, SPI, USB low-level protocols.
• Automation and testing tools: Jenkins, NUnit, CMock, Python scripting.
• Development of Windows/Mobile GUI applications.
• Design experience with secure elements.

Skills:

• Effective communication in English, both verbal and written.
• Ability to interpret technical journals, specifications, and standards.

Computer Skills:

• Proficiency in MS Office applications.
• Familiarity with Windows operating systems.