Sr. Staff Engineer, Firmware

Ayar Labs; Bengaluru; On-site; INR 1,200,000 - 1,800,000; Full time

Job summary

Ayar Labs in Bengaluru is looking for a Sr. Staff Engineer, Embedded Firmware, to lead firmware development for their innovative optical interconnect products. This role requires expertise in embedded systems and strong collaboration with diverse engineering teams.

The ideal candidate will have over 6 years of experience in firmware development, particularly in high-speed electronics and photonics applications. A hands-on and proactive approach is essential in this dynamic startup environment.

Join us to be part of a revolution in AI data transfer with cutting-edge technologies.

Qualifications

• 6+ years of relevant industry experience in firmware development.
• Proven expertise in bare-metal embedded firmware development.
• Experience with microcontrollers and firmware debugging tools.

Responsibilities

• Design, develop, and optimize firmware for electronic-photonic chips.
• Collaborate with engineers to develop control algorithms.
• Mentor and guide junior engineers in their development.

Skills

Firmware development

C programming

Embedded systems

Problem-solving

Team collaboration

Education

Bachelor’s in Electrical/Computer Engineering or related field

Tools

JIRA

Git

CI/CD tools

Job description

Sr. Staff 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 6+ 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.