Firmware Intern

WindBorne Systems

Redwood City (CA)

On-site

USD 37,505 - 53,416

Full time

14 days+

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Benefits offered by this job

In-office food

Job summary

WindBorne Systems in Redwood City is seeking a Firmware Wizard to own the entire firmware stack for its weather balloons. The role involves developing and maintaining drivers and low-level libraries, owning the RTOS hardware abstraction layer, and ensuring power optimization of sensor hardware. Ideal candidates will have strong skills in C/C++, Python, and debugging, coupled with real-world hardware experience. The position requires in-person presence at the office and offers in-office food along with a salary of $33/hr.

Qualifications

Experience programming, shipping, and maintaining hardware in a real-world setting.
Excited by rapid iteration rather than perfect long-term planning.
Comfortable reading PCB schematics; ideally have some EE experience.

Responsibilities

Develop and maintain drivers and low-level libraries for new chips, modules, and sensors.
Own our custom open-source RTOS hardware abstraction layer.
Design fault-tolerant systems that can recover gracefully from unexpected conditions.

Skills

C/C++ programming

Python programming

Low-level driver development

Reading PCB schematics

Debugging skills

Effective communication

Job description

WindBorne Systems is supercharging weather models with a unique proprietary data source: a global constellation of next‑generation smart weather balloons targeting the most critical atmospheric data. We design, manufacture, and operate our own balloons, using the data they collect to generate otherwise unattainable weather intelligence.

Our mission is to eliminate weather uncertainty and help humanity adapt to climate change, whether predicting hurricanes or speeding the adoption of renewables. We are building a future in which the planet is instrumented by thousands of our microballoons, eliminating gaps in our understanding of the planet and giving people and businesses the information they need to make critical decisions. The founding team of Stanford engineers was named Forbes 2019 30 under 30 and is backed by top investors including Khosla Ventures.

Firmware Wizard

WindBorne is looking for a Firmware Wizard to own our entire firmware stack. As a vertically integrated weather company, we design, calibrate, and integrate our own custom sensors and control mechanisms into our autonomous balloons. This poses some unique challenges: most components are outside their temperature spec, power is extremely limited, and it is not easy to update code when the system is many miles in the air. The work happens at the intersection of hardware and software, where clever code can compensate for physical limitations.

Responsibilities

Develop and maintain drivers and low‑level libraries for new chips, modules, and sensors.
Own our custom open‑source RTOS hardware abstraction layer, Amslah, and perform hardening and architectural refinements as we scale.
Push the limits of our custom sensor hardware and calibration infrastructure, ensuring the GSBs are power‑optimized and survive extreme cold beyond sub‑component specifications.
Work closely with R&D on novel hardware to improve the accuracy of meteorological measurements.
Design fault‑tolerant systems that can recover gracefully from unexpected conditions.
Debug highly non‑trivial issues.

Skills and Qualifications

Experience programming, shipping, and maintaining hardware in a real‑world setting.
Excited by rapid iteration rather than perfect long‑term planning.
Fluent in C/C++ and Python.
Experience writing low‑level drivers for a variety of chips.
Comfortable reading PCB schematics; ideally have some EE experience.
Able to form hypotheses and run experiments about system behavior.
Effective communicator, able to cut through misunderstandings and reason about trade‑offs in complex multidisciplinary spaces.
Excellent debugging skills in complex settings.

Benefits