Photonics Firmware Engineer: Bring-Up & Validation

Xscape Photonics Inc; California; On-site; USD 100,000 - 140,000; Full time

Job summary

Xscape Photonics is seeking a Firmware Engineer to lead validation and test firmware for our embedded optical quantum hardware, including lasers, modulators, and photodetectors. You will bring-up and characterize new hardware and verify control algorithms in C/C++ on microcontroller-based platforms.

Collaborating with production firmware, you will implement bootloaders, interfaces (I2C/SPI/UART), and diagnostics, while maintaining design docs and test procedures for productization.

Qualifications

• BS/MS in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, or a related field, with 3+ years in embedded firmware.
• Embedded firmware in C/C++ for real-time systems (bare-metal and/or RTOS-based).
• Microcontrollers and low-level peripheral interfaces (I2C, SPI, UART, GPIO, ADC/DAC).
• Hardware bring-up and debug with lab instruments.

Responsibilities

• Design and implement validation firmware for microcontroller-based platforms that drive lasers, modulators, photodetectors, and associated control electronics to bring up, characterize, and qualify new hardware and control algorithms.
• Implement control methods prototyped in Python as embedded firmware and verify they reproduce intended behavior on hardware.
• Interface with precision ADC/DAC channels for laser current control, temperature control, power monitoring, and photodiode feedback.
• Implement bootloaders, firmware update mechanisms, and diagnostics/telemetry for manufacturing and field support.
• Configure and read sensors, DACs/ADCs, and control elements over I2C, SPI, UART, GPIO.
• Support hardware bring-up, board-level debug of custom PCBs using lab instrumentation.
• Characterize behavior across operating corners, document failure modes, and handoff validated behavior and test procedures.

Skills

Embedded firmware

C/C++

Real-time systems

I2C/SPI/UART/GPIO

Hardware bring-up

Git

Problem solving

Teamwork

Education

BS/MS in Electrical Engineering or related field

Tools

Python

Git

Oscilloscope

DMM

Job description

Xscape Photonics is seeking a Firmware Engineer to lead validation and test firmware for our embedded optical quantum hardware, including lasers, modulators, and photodetectors. You will bring-up and characterize new hardware and verify control algorithms in C/C++ on microcontroller-based platforms.

Collaborating with production firmware, you will implement bootloaders, interfaces (I2C/SPI/UART), and diagnostics, while maintaining design docs and test procedures for productization.