Principal Engineer, Firmware

Ayar Labs; Bengaluru; On-site; INR 2,000,000 - 3,000,000; Full time

Job summary

Ayar Labs in Bengaluru is seeking a Principal Engineer, Embedded Firmware to lead the firmware development lifecycle for innovative products. You will drive design and integration, ensuring seamless hardware validation of complex electronic-photonic chips.

The ideal candidate will have over 12 years of experience, strong skills in embedded systems, and a proactive approach in a dynamic startup environment. Join a team backed by industry leaders to shape the future of optical interconnect technology.

Qualifications

• 12+ years of relevant industry experience.
• Proven expertise in bare-metal embedded firmware development.
• Hands-on, proactive approach with the ability to thrive in a fast-paced startup.

Responsibilities

• Collaborate with designers to develop control algorithms for photonic circuits.
• Design, develop, and optimize firmware for high-speed SerDes.
• Provide technical leadership and mentor junior engineers.

Skills

Embedded firmware development

Programming in C

Fast-paced dynamic environment

Firmware debugging tools

Project management tools (JIRA)

Version control workflows (Git)

Scripting in Python

Education

Bachelor's in Electrical/Computer Engineering

Tools

CI/CD tools

Make-based build flows

Job description

Principal Engineer, Embedded Firmware

Location: Bangaluru (on‑site, hours flexible)

Ayar Labs is shattering AI data bottlenecks by moving data at the speed of light. As pioneers of co‑packaged optics (CPO), we are using light instead of electricity to move data faster, further, and with a fraction of the energy needed to fuel the explosive growth of AI models.

Backed by industry giants like NVIDIA, AMD, Mediatek and Intel and manufactured in partnership with the world’s leading semiconductor ecosystem, Ayar Labs’ co‑packaged optics solution is key to unleashing next‑generation AI scale‑up architectures.

We are seeking an exceptional Firmware Engineer to own the firmware development lifecycle for our groundbreaking products. In this critical role, you will drive firmware design from inception to customer deployment, ensuring seamless hardware validation and integration. This is a unique opportunity to leverage your expertise in embedded systems, multi‑chip package environments, and high‑speed SerDes to shape the future of optical interconnect.

Essential Functions

• Collaborate closely with analog/mixed‑signal, digital, and photonic block designers to develop sophisticated control algorithms for our photonic circuits and establish the micro‑architecture and embedded requirements for our multi‑chip package systems.
• Drive embedded firmware development: Design, develop, and optimize firmware for controlling complex electronic‑photonic chips featuring multiple high‑speed SerDes.
• Provide technical leadership: Mentor and guide junior engineers, contributing to their professional growth and development.
• Partner effectively with diverse teams, including hardware, software, validation and systems engineers, to achieve project goals.

Required Qualifications

• Bachelor's in Electrical/Computer Engineering or a related field with 12+ years of relevant industry experience.
• Proven expertise in bare‑metal embedded firmware development, with strong programming skills in C.
• Hands‑on, proactive approach with the ability to thrive in a fast‑paced, dynamic startup environment.
• Experience with various microcontrollers and firmware debugging tools.
• Experience estimating memory and CPU clock rate requirements.
• Proficiency with modern version control workflows (e.g., Git).
• Familiarity with project management tools (JIRA), and CI/CD tools.
• Ability to own architecture and development of firmware modules from scratch.
• Experience in scripting with high level language like Python.
• Experience with Make‑based build flows.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience in embedded firmware development for high‑speed electronics and photonics applications.
• Silicon bring‑up experience for high‑speed SerDes and photonics applications.