Firmware Engineer

Cohu, Inc.; San Diego (CA); On-site; USD 115,000 - 135,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Medical, dental & vision insurance

401(k) with company matching

Employee Stock Purchase Plan

Tuition assistance

Disability & life insurance

Profit Sharing

Job summary

Cohu, Inc. is seeking a senior firmware engineer in California to lead firmware development for STM32H7 platforms. You will work closely with hardware, software, and customer teams to bring up boards, implement drivers, and enhance a Windows GUI for multiple communication interfaces.

You will own firmware deliverables, write thorough documentation, and train customers on interfaces, with travel as needed to support projects and deployments.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in electrical engineering, computer engineering, or a related field (MS desired).
• Minimum 8 years of firmware development and application support experience.
• Strong proficiency in C and C++, including Windows application development.
• Experience with bare metal firmware on STM32 or similar ARM Cortex M microcontrollers and board bring-up.
• Experience with UART, SPI, I2C, CAN, Ethernet; EtherCAT a plus.
• Experience in bootloader development and Git; FPGA experience a plus.
• Willingness to travel for projects and customer support.
• Excellent English communication skills; German/French a plus.

Responsibilities

• Develop bare metal C/C++ firmware for STM32H7 microcontrollers from pin assignment to drivers and debugging.
• Develop and improve a cross‑platform C++ GUI with multiple interfaces (Ethernet, CAN, serial).
• Create and maintain design docs, interface specs, test plans, and release notes.
• Write clean, well-documented code with Git traceability across requirements and releases.
• Act as firmware owner and bridge between sales, customers, and engineering, including customer training.

Skills

C/C++ proficiency

Windows app development

Bare metal firmware

Microcontroller familiarity

UART/SPI/I2C/CAN

Ethernet

Git

JTAG/oscilloscopes

Education

Bachelor's degree in electrical or computer engineering

MS preferred

Tools

Git

STM32CubeMX

Job description

• Lead the development and support of all firmware in the Electrical Engineering group, becoming the group's firmware owner within approximately six months.
• Act as the technical bridge between sales, customers, and engineering: provide pre and post sales support, and train customers to interface with our equipment.
• Implement firmware changes on legacy products still in production, including analysis of older designs where documentation is limited.
• Support the development of new electronic boards, from pin definition through firmware delivery.

Main Objectives

• Lead the development and support of all firmware in the Electrical Engineering group, becoming the group's firmware owner within approximately six months.
• Act as the technical bridge between sales, customers, and engineering: provide pre and post sales support, and train customers to interface with our equipment.
• Implement firmware changes on legacy products still in production, including analysis of older designs where documentation is limited.
• Support the development of new electronic boards, from pin definition through firmware delivery.

Essential Functions/Major Responsibilities

• Develop bare metal C/C++ firmware for STM32H7 microcontrollers, from pin assignment and board bring up with hardware engineers through peripheral drivers and debugging (JTAG, oscilloscopes, logic analyzers, etc.).
• Develop and improve our advanced PC based C++ graphical user interface, which supports multiple communication interfaces (Ethernet, CAN, serial), command and scripting operation, and real time graphing.
• Create and maintain documentation: initial design requirements, firmware architecture and design documents, interface specifications (command sets and protocols), test plans and results, release notes, and customer interface guides.
• Write clean, well structured, well commented code, managed in Git with full traceability of changes to requirements and releases.

Essential Quality Expectations

• Strong analytical skills and sound engineering judgment under ambiguity.
• Ability to quickly learn and take ownership of existing code bases, including those with limited documentation.
• Self directed, able to work as the group's sole firmware engineer and set priorities across multiple projects.
• Clear communication with customers and internal teams, including teaching customer engineers to use our interfaces.
• Commitment to technical excellence, documentation, and knowledge transfer.
• Customer oriented thinking and ability to represent the company in technical discussions

Qualifications & Requirements

• Education/Training: Bachelor's degree in electrical engineering, computer engineering, or a related field (MS desired).
• Experience: Minimum of 8 years of experience in firmware development and application support for complex electromechanical systems / control systems.
• Skills/Technical Requirements:- Strong proficiency in C and C++, including Windows application development.
• Experience with bare metal firmware on STM32 or similar ARM Cortex M microcontrollers, understanding of microcontroller architecture and digital circuit design, experience bringing up boards from schematics
• Experience with communication protocols such as UART, SPI, I2C, CAN, and Ethernet. EtherCAT is a plus.
• Experience in bootloader development and Git.
• FPGA experience is a plus.
• Experience with motion control and/or control systems. Thermal systems experience is a plus.
• Willingness to travel as required for projects and customer support.
• Excellent English communication skills. German and/or French is a plus.

Compensation: The estimated base pay range for this position is $115,000 to $135,000 per year, depending on qualifications, experience, education, and other job-related factors. This range represents Cohu’s good faith estimate of what it reasonably expects to pay for this role upon hire. This role may also be eligible for other compensation programs as determined by company policy.

Featured benefits

• Medical, dental & vision insurance
• 401(k) with company matching contributions
• Employee Stock Purchase Plan
• Tuition assistance
• Disability & life insurance
• Profit Sharing