Firmware Engineer I

Firefly Aerospace; Cedar Park (TX); On-site; USD 80,000 - 110,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Health, dental, and vision plans

Parental leave

Educational reimbursement

Flexible PTO options

Job summary

Firefly Aerospace in Cedar Park, Texas, seeks a skilled engineer to develop and integrate embedded flight software for spacecraft. You will work with other engineers throughout all stages of software development, ensuring high-quality standards.

The ideal candidate will have a Bachelor’s in a related field and at least 1 year of experience in embedded firmware development. Firefly offers outstanding benefits including health plans, flexible PTO, educational reimbursement, and more.

Qualifications

• 1+ years of professional experience in embedded firmware development.
• Experience with real-time operating systems like FreeRTOS or Zephyr.
• Proficiency in CI/CD tools like Teamcity or GitLab CI.

Responsibilities

• Design, develop, and test embedded firmware for microcontrollers.
• Collaborate with hardware engineers for seamless integration.
• Participate in code reviews and maintain high-quality standards.

Skills

Embedded firmware development

C/C++ programming

Communication protocols (I2C, SPI, UART, CAN)

Debugging tools (JTAG, SWD)

CI/CD workflow development

Education

Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, Computer Science, or related field

Tools

Linux environments

FPGA development

Embedded development environments

Job description

SUMMARY

In this role you will help design, develop, test, and integrate the embedded flight software for Firefly spacecraft. You will work in a group of software engineers through all stages of spacecraft software development processes and collaborate with other engineering teams.

RESPONSIBILITIES

Design, develop, and test embedded firmware for microcontrollers and microprocessors in bare-metal or RTOS environments.

Architect and implement low-level drivers, communication protocols (I2C, SPI, UART, CAN, etc.), and system-level firmware for real-time applications.

Collaborate with hardware engineers to define system architecture, debug hardware/firmware interactions, and ensure seamless integration.

Optimize firmware for power efficiency, performance, and memory constraints in resource-limited embedded systems.

Participate in code reviews, maintain high-quality code standards, and document firmware designs and processes.

Contribute to system-level debugging, performance profiling, and validation of embedded systems.

Optionally, support FPGA integration, including firmware interfacing with FPGA designs, or contribute to custom OS builds using tools like Yocto or Buildroot.

QUALIFICATIONS

Required

Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, Computer Science, or a related field.

1+ years of professional experience in embedded firmware development in Linux environments.

Proven track record of delivering real-world industry projects involving embedded firmware developed as bare-metal or RTOS applications (e.g., FreeRTOS, Zephyr, or similar).

Strong programming skills in C/C++ for embedded systems, with experience in assembly language as a plus.

Experience with communication protocols (I2C, SPI, UART, CAN, USB, Ethernet, etc.) and real-time system constraints.

Familiarity with debugging tools (JTAG, SWD, oscilloscopes, logic analyzers) and embedded development environments.

Experience developing C++ applications for embedded systems.

Proficiency in CI/CD workflow development for embedded firmware projects (e.g., Teamcity, GitLab CI, or similar).

Experience with FPGA development, including firmware integration with FPGA designs.

Familiarity with custom OS builds using Yocto, Buildroot, or similar embedded Linux build systems.

Firefly offers outstanding benefits for our employees, including generous health, dental and vision plans with low plan deductibles, parental leave, educational reimbursement, short term disability, and flexible PTO options.

To conform to U.S. Government space technology export regulations, including the International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR) you must be a U.S. citizen, lawful permanent resident of the U.S., protected individual as defined by 8 U.S.C. 1324b(a)(3), or eligible to obtain the required authorizations from the U.S. Department of State.

Firefly Aerospace, Inc. is an Equal Opportunity Employer; employment with Firefly is governed based on merit, competence and qualifications and will not be influenced in any manner by race, color, religion, gender, national origin/ethnicity, veteran status, disability status, age, sexual orientation, gender identity, marital status, mental or physical disability or any other legally protected status.