Lead Embedded Firmware Engineer, Optical Transceivers

Polaris Electro-Optics, Inc.; Carlsbad (CA); On-site; USD 120,000 - 180,000; Full time

Job summary

Polaris Electro-Optics, a rapidly growing photonics company in California, seeks a Senior or Principal Embedded Firmware Engineer to develop control firmware for next‑gen optical interconnect platforms.

You will own MCU‑based control, configuration, telemetry, calibration, and host interfaces, working closely with hardware, photonics, and systems teams to bring complex electro‑optical hardware to stable operation and repeatable testing.

Qualifications

• B.S. or M.S. in Electrical/Computer Engineering or related field.
• Strong embedded C/C++ experience.
• Hands-on CMIS-based optical module management experience.
• Experience with ARM Cortex-M family.
• Proficient with SPI, I2C, UART, USB, GPIO and related peripherals.
• Experience in board bring-up and hardware/firmware debugging.

Responsibilities

• Develop embedded firmware for MCU-based board bring-up, device configuration, telemetry, calibration, and hardware control.
• Implement MCU control of ADCs, DACs, regulators, temperature sensors, MZM heaters, drivers, TIAs, and other peripheral devices.
• Own CMIS-based module management including state-machine behavior, configuration, telemetry, alarms, control functions, and host management interfaces.
• Develop SPI, I2C, UART, USB, GPIO, and related low-level device drivers.
• Develop calibration and initialization routines for optical and electrical hardware.
• Support MZM bias/heater calibration, monitor photodiode acquisition, driver/TIA configuration, and telemetry collection.
• Work with systems engineers to expose appropriate control and diagnostic functionality for system bring-up and automated testing.
• Debug firmware/hardware interactions in the lab.
• Develop logging, diagnostics, fault reporting, and firmware update mechanisms.
• Establish firmware release, versioning, regression-test, and CI practices to support repeatable development and qualification.

Skills

Embedded C/C++

ARM Cortex-M

CMIS-based module management

SPI, I2C, UART, USB, GPIO

Board bring-up & hardware/firmware

Telemetry and calibration workflows

Education

BS in Electrical/Computer Engineering

MS preferred

Job description

Polaris Electro-Optics, a rapidly growing photonics company in California, seeks a Senior or Principal Embedded Firmware Engineer to develop control firmware for next‑gen optical interconnect platforms.

You will own MCU‑based control, configuration, telemetry, calibration, and host interfaces, working closely with hardware, photonics, and systems teams to bring complex electro‑optical hardware to stable operation and repeatable testing.