Senior Embedded Firmware Engineer — Low-Power IoT

Workshop Hiring; Austin (TX); On-site; USD 120,000 - 160,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Equity package

Health, dental, vision insurance

Paid family & medical leave

Unlimited PTO

Collaborative team culture

Ownership & responsibility

Job summary

Drover is building a virtual fencing ear tag for cattle, and the platform around it to run the modern ranch. The senior firmware engineer will join our East Austin office, with travel to our field office in Lockhart, to craft low-level firmware for a cellular-connected IoT device used in harsh environments.

This early-stage startup offers high ownership and the chance to work across hardware and software as we scale in the USA, Australia, and New Zealand, starting with Texas in Q1 2027.

Qualifications

• 5+ years of embedded software design for consumer or commercial electronics.
• Fluent in C, with testing and debugging experience.
• Experience with memory-constrained microcontrollers (ARM Cortex‑M).
• Experience designing low-power connected devices.
• Experience with an RTOS and multi-threading.
• Experience with serial protocols (UART, I2C, SPI).
• Experience with hardware interfaces (PWM, ADC).
• Experience with Cellular and BLE.

Responsibilities

• Lead embedded firmware development of a low-power cellular-connected IoT device.
• Define features and refine firmware architecture across the company.
• Write, test, and QA production code.
• Implement reliable over-the-air firmware updates.
• Develop proof-of-concept prototypes using development kits.
• Collaborate with electrical engineering on component selection and board bring-up.
• Coordinate with OEMs for software support during testing and manufacturing.
• Support the founding team in early-stage development.

Skills

C programming

Embedded software

RTOS

Serial protocols UART I2C SPI

Low-power design

ARM Cortex-M

Cellular & BLE

Debugging

Education

Bachelor's or Master's in CS/SE/EE

Tools

Development kits

Oscilloscopes

Logic analyzers

Job description

Drover is building a virtual fencing ear tag for cattle, and the platform around it to run the modern ranch. The senior firmware engineer will join our East Austin office, with travel to our field office in Lockhart, to craft low-level firmware for a cellular-connected IoT device used in harsh environments.

This early-stage startup offers high ownership and the chance to work across hardware and software as we scale in the USA, Australia, and New Zealand, starting with Texas in Q1 2027.