Embedded Firmware Engineer

halma; Ahmedabad District; On-site; INR 1,200,000 - 2,400,000; Full time

Job summary

Halma is seeking an embedded firmware engineer in India to design and implement firmware for STM32-based instruments. You will develop low-level drivers, FreeRTOS tasks, and secure boot/update paths while ensuring power efficiency and hardware debugging support.

Requires 3–5 years in embedded firmware, strong C skills, and experience with bootloaders, encryption, and hardware interfaces. Collaboration with hardware engineers for bring-up and design reviews is expected.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's or Master's in Electronics, E&C, Instrumentation, or Computer Engineering or related field.

Responsibilities

• Design, develop and maintain embedded firmware in C for STM32-based instruments from register-level drivers to FreeRTOS tasks.
• Develop and optimise low-level peripheral drivers (UART, I2C, SPI, ADC, DMA, timers, RTC, GPIO, PWM).
• Architect and implement FreeRTOS applications: tasks, queues, semaphores, mutexes, event groups, stack sizing, and debugging issues.
• Write and maintain bootloader code with memory partitioning, image validation, rollback and fail-safe recovery.
• Implement secure firmware update paths (OTA/wired) with AES, signatures and anti-rollback protection.
• Enforce firmware protection: RDP, readout protection, secure boot, key storage, and anti-tamper measures.

Skills

Embedded C

STM32

FreeRTOS

Bootloader

Serial comms (UART/I2C/SPI)

Git

Hardware debugging

Education

Electronics/EC/Instrumentation/CS degree

Tools

STM32CubeIDE

STM32CubeMX

Keil MDK

IAR Embedded Workbench

ST-Link/J-Link

Job description

Halma is a global group of life-saving technologies companies, driven by a clear purpose. We are an FTSE 100 company with headquarters in the UK and operations in 23 countries, including regional hubs in India, China, Brazil, and the US.

Our diverse group of nearly 50 global companies specialise in market leading technologies that push the boundaries of science and technology.

Halma India fulfils the potential of the region by harnessing the diverse talents, expertise, infrastructure, and operational resources. At Halma India, We have a team of over 280 professionals representing commercial, digital, business support group and support functions across our seven offices in India, two in Bengaluru and one each in Delhi NCR, Mumbai, Thanjavur, Vadodara, and Ahmedabad.

Responsibilities (KRAs / deliverables/job expectations):

• Design, develop and maintain embedded firmware in C for STM32 (Cortex-M0+/M3/M4) based instruments, from bare-metal register-level drivers up to FreeRTOS application tasks.
• Develop and optimise low-level peripheral drivers - UART, I2C, SPI, ADC, DMA, timers, RTC, GPIO, PWM, low-power modes - with and without HAL/LL layers.
• Architect and implement FreeRTOS-based applications: task decomposition, priority assignment, queues, semaphores, mutexes, event groups, stack sizing, and diagnosis of priority inversion, race conditions and stack overflow.
• Write and maintain custom bootloader code - memory partitioning and linker scripts, dual-bank / A-B image schemes, image validation with CRC and digital signatures, rollback and fail-safe recovery.
• Implement secure and encrypted firmware update paths (OTA and wired), including AES-encrypted image delivery, signature verification and anti-rollback protection.
• Implement firmware protection and anti-tamper measures: STM32 Read-Out Protection (RDP), write protection, proprietary code readout protection (PCROP), secure boot / root of trust, debug port lockdown and key storage strategy.
• Integrate and characterise sensors and peripherals - electrochemical, catalytic, IR/TDLAS gas sensors, displays, flash memory, Bluetooth Low Energy and GPS modules.
• Support power optimisation and battery life targets for portable, field-deployed instruments.
• Debug at hardware level using oscilloscopes, logic analysers, multimeters and JTAG/SWD debuggers; work directly with hardware engineers on board bring-up and design reviews.
• Write unit and integration tests, participate in code reviews, and maintain firmware under version control with a disciplined branching and release process.
• Produce and maintain engineering documentation: design documents, interface specifications, test protocols and release notes, in line with our quality management system.
• Support production, service and field teams on firmware-related issues, including root cause analysis of returns and field failures.

Critical Success factors (critical / high impact aspects of role):

• Strong, demonstrable proficiency in Embedded C, including pointers, memory management, bit manipulation, volatile and interrupt-safe coding.
• Solid bare-metal experience on STM32 microcontrollers - direct register programming, startup code, linker scripts, interrupt vector tables, clock tree and memory map configuration.
• Practical, production-level experience with FreeRTOS on microcontrollers - not just tutorial exposure.
• Demonstrated experience writing bootloader code, including firmware update mechanisms and image validation.
• Working knowledge of firmware protection and encryption concepts: symmetric encryption (AES), hashing, digital signatures, secure boot, and microcontroller readout/debug protection features.
• Strong grasp of serial communication protocols (UART, I2C, SPI, Modbus) and the ability to debug them on a wire.
• Comfortable with hardware debug tools - ST-Link/J-Link, SWD/JTAG, oscilloscope, logic analyser - and able to read schematics and datasheets independently.
• Experience with Git and a structured development workflow.

Academic qualification:

• Bachelor's or Master's degree in Electronics, Electronics & Communication, Instrumentation, Computer Engineering or a related discipline.

Experience (exposure):

• 3 to 5 years of hands‑on embedded firmware development experience in a product company is mandatory.

Key attributes (critical functional competencies):

Desired skill set (Nice to have):

• Experience with STM32CubeIDE, STM32CubeMX, Keil MDK or IAR Embedded Workbench.
• Exposure to STM32 TrustZone (Cortex-M33), SFI (Secure Firmware Install) or hardware crypto accelerators.
• Experience with Bluetooth Low Energy stacks, or wireless connectivity on battery‑powered devices.
• Background in gas detection, analytical instrumentation, medical devices, or other safety‑critical / regulated products.
• Familiarity with functional safety or certification standards (ATEX, IECEx, UL, CSA, IEC 61508) as they apply to firmware.
• Experience with static analysis, MISRA‑C, unit test frameworks (Unity/CMock) or CI for embedded b