BMC Firmware Engineer

MatX Inc.; Mountain View (CA); Hybrid; USD 160,000 - 600,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

4 weeks PTO

Remote work up to 3 weeks

Medical insurance

401K or retirement plan

Team meals & lunches

Commuter benefits

AI resources stipend

Job summary

MatX Inc. is seeking a senior System Software Engineer to design and ship OpenBMC firmware for AI compute boards and custom SoCs. You will own the Yocto/OpenEmbedded build, board porting, and device trees, while developing manageability features like telemetry, inventory, and power management.

You will work closely with hardware, silicon, security, and systems teams on firmware updates, secure boot, attestation, and driver bring-up, influencing both firmware architecture and board design.

Qualifications

• 8+ years of experience in BMC firmware and embedded Linux development.

Responsibilities

• Design, build, and ship OpenBMC firmware for custom compute boards and BMC SoCs.
• Own the Yocto/OpenEmbedded-based build, board port, and device trees (U-Boot and Linux kernel).
• Develop platform manageability features: telemetry, inventory, event logging, PMBus, and RAS for AI ASICs and board components.
• Implement firmware update, secure boot, and attestation flows with silicon and security teams.
• Write and bring up Linux kernel drivers and services; debug across hardware/firmware boundary.

Skills

C/C++

Python Bash

Linux fundamentals

OpenBMC

autonomy

Tools

Yocto/OpenEmbedded

U-Boot

Device trees

OpenBMC firmware

Open source

Job description

What MatX Is Building

MatX's mission is to make the world’s best AI models run as efficiently as allowed by physics, bringing the world years ahead in AI quality and availability. MatX is seeking System Software Engineer to join our team as we create best-in-class silicon for high-performance and sustainable GenAI. Successful candidates for these roles will be responsible for delivering performant and functionally accurate silicon for MatX products across compute, memory management. High-speed connectivity and other key technologies.

The MatX host system software team owns everything that makes our AI silicon and systems usable: from Linux kernel drivers up through node and cluster management. The team also co-owns the BMC/OpenBMC firmware stack, with dedicated firmware engineers, so host software and out-of-band management are designed together rather than bolted together. We're looking for self-driven engineers who can take a hardware spec and a register map and just start building — prototype drivers, low-level utilities that talk directly to the chip, daemons, and tooling — with minimal hand-holding. Each engineer on this team has a primary focus area, but ownership of overlapping components is shared, and you should expect (and want) to venture across the stack.

Our BMC firmware stack, built on OpenBMC, is the nervous system of our platform: it handles bring-up, telemetry, thermal and power management, firmware updates, and platform security for every board we ship. We are seeking a senior BMC firmware engineer to own the OpenBMC stack for our AI compute boards, from first board bring-up through high-volume datacenter deployment. You will be one of the first engineers on this effort, with broad ownership and direct influence on both firmware architecture and board design.

What You'll Do Here

• Design, build, and ship OpenBMC firmware for our custom compute boards, where the BMC manages our in-house AI ASICs — from early bring-up on reference hardware through production deployment

• Own the Yocto/OpenEmbedded-based build, board port, and device trees (U-Boot and Linux kernel) for our BMC SoC

• Develop platform manageability features: sensor and telemetry infrastructure, inventory, event logging, fan/thermal/power management (PMBus), and RAS for the AI ASICs and board components (CPLDs/FPGAs, PSUs, NICs, memory)

• Build management interfaces on industry standards — Redfish, IPMI, and DMTF protocols (MCTP, PLDM, SPDM) — including out-of-band management of our ASICs

• Implement firmware update, secure boot, and attestation flows in partnership with our silicon and security teams

• Write and bring up Linux kernel drivers and D-Bus/sdbusplus services; debug across the hardware/firmware boundary with schematics, logic analyzers, and JTAG

• Influence board and ASIC design: review schematics and hardware architecture from a manageability and debuggability perspective

• Upstream improvements to the OpenBMC community where appropriate, and build the CI, test automation, and tooling that keep our firmware quality high

Who You Are

• 8+ years of experience in BMC firmware and embedded Linux development, with hands-on OpenBMC experience from board bring-up through production

• Strong C/C++ and solid Python or Bash; deep Linux fundamentals spanning user space, the driver model, and kernel internals

• Proficient with Yocto/OpenEmbedded, U-Boot, and device trees; experience with BMC SoCs such as ASPEED or Nuvoton

• Board bring-up experience with low-level buses and interfaces: I2C/I3C, SPI, eSPI/LPC, SMBus, UART, PCIe, JTAG

• Working knowledge of platform management standards: IPMI/KCS, Redfish, and DMTF protocols (MCTP, PLDM, SPDM)

• Experience with thermal/power management, firmware update mechanisms, and firmware security (secure boot, root of trust, attestation) is a strong plus

• Contributions to OpenBMC, the Linux kernel, or related open-source/OCP/DMTF efforts are a plus

• Comfortable operating with high autonomy on a small team, collaborating closely with hardware, silicon, security, and systems engineers

• Excellent technical communication and documentation skills

Bonus Points If You Have

• Experience with pre-silicon validation environments (simulation, emulation, FPGA prototyping)

• First-silicon or new-platform bring-up experience for accelerators, NICs, or SoCs

• Familiarity with SR-IOV, dma-buf, peer-to-peer PCIe, or VFIO

• Kernel performance tuning and profiling experience (perf, ftrace, eBPF)

• Exposure to BMC/host interaction paths (e.g., in-band vs. out-of-band device access, sideband interfaces such as I2C/SMBus)

• Rust for systems programming

Compensation

The US base salary for this full-time position is determined based on a variety of factors including role, experience, location, job-related skills, and relevant education and training. Career length is only a guideline for compensation.

• Early Career - $160,000 - $275,000 + equity

• Mid Career - $175,000 - $400,000 + equity

• Senior Career - $250,000 - $600,000 + equity

What We Offer

• Time off: 4 weeks PTO (accrued) + 12 company Holidays + up to 3 weeks remote work

• Health: Company-subsidized Medical (Kaiser or Anthem) for employees & dependents, Guardian Dental and Vision insurances for employee & dependents, and life insurance (employee only), plus HSA and FSA offerings via Lively. See attached benefits 1-pager and full benefits guide for more info on benefits.

• Financial Wellbeing: Choose from Roth IRA/ 401K (or both) retirement plans with up to 5% company contribution to 401K (even if you don't contribute). Also, 100% company-paid life insurance (up to $300K) and long-term disability insurances.

• Professional Development: $1500 Professional Development Budget (per year)

• Team Meals: MatX provides onsite team lunch & dinner Monday - Friday, with your choice of ordering via WeBox, Specialty’s or via our reimbursement system

• Commute on Us: Commute on our company Uber account, or reimburse your train rides. Either way, we pay 100% for your daily commute.

• MatX E[x]tras: $50/mo to use on the perk you value most

• Cell & Internet Reimbursement: $35/mo for cellular and $40/mo for wifi

• Mental Wellbeing: 100% paid mental health benefit via SpringHealth and Guardian EAP.

• Support to Parents: Up to 12 weeks paid parental leave regardless of path to parenthood, 10 weeks pregnancy disability leave, flexible return-to-work hours, and Benepass reproductive health & parental benefit.

• AI Resources: Up to $20K/month plus a dedicated internal AI Tooling Team to support your productivity

As part of our dedication to the diversity of our team and our focus on creating an inviting and inclusive work experience, MatX is committed to a policy of Equal Employment Opportunity and will not discriminate against an applicant or employee on the basis of race, color, religion, creed, national origin or ancestry, sex, gender, gender identity, gender expression, sexual orientation, age, physical or mental disability, medical condition, marital/domestic partner status, military and veteran status, genetic information or any other legally recognized protected basis under federal, state or local laws, regulations or ordinances.

All candidates must be authorized to work in the United States and work from our offices in Mountain View Tuesdays-Thursdays.

This position requires access to information that is subject to U.S. export controls. This offer of employment is contingent upon the applicants capacity to perform job functions in compliance with U.S. export control laws without obtaining a license from U.S. export control authorities.

MatX does not accept unsolicited resumes from individual recruiters or third-party recruiting agencies in response to job postings. No fee will be paid to third parties who submit unsolicited candidates directly to our hiring managers or People team and any resumes submitted are deemed to be the property of MatX.