Senior Embedded OS Engineer — Drone Firmware & CI/CD

Key People; Salt Lake City (UT); On-site; USD 110,000 - 150,000; Full time

Job summary

Key People is seeking a hands-on Embedded OS Engineer to own the Ubuntu-based Linux firmware stack on the MK2 drone platform (Qualcomm QRB5165). You will build, secure, and ship the OS through automated CI/CD pipelines, navigating low-level OS internals and Yocto BitBake workflows on headless hardware with no display.

You’ll own the build system, create patches against the BSP, and optimize image pipelines while easing maintenance of security and compliance.

Qualifications

• Hands-on embedded OS engineer with experience in Linux firmware
• Familiar with Yocto/BitBake machinery and headless embedded hardware
• Comfortable navigating low-level OS internals and image builds

Responsibilities

• Own and maintain Yocto/BitBake build system and image recipes
• Write patches against BSP and avoid upstream modification
• Debug build failures and optimize build times
• Configure ROOTFS post-processing and OS hardening
• Maintain Jenkins CI/CD pipelines for firmware images
• Configure embedded Linux components (systemd, networking)
• Address security findings and ensure compliance
• Profile and diagnose slow boot and memory pressure in ARM64 devices

Skills

Embedded OS engineering

Yocto/BitBake

Linux firmware

CI/CD pipelines

Headless systems

Tools

QEMU

Git

Systemd

Job description

Key People is seeking a hands-on Embedded OS Engineer to own the Ubuntu-based Linux firmware stack on the MK2 drone platform (Qualcomm QRB5165). You will build, secure, and ship the OS through automated CI/CD pipelines, navigating low-level OS internals and Yocto BitBake workflows on headless hardware with no display.

You’ll own the build system, create patches against the BSP, and optimize image pipelines while easing maintenance of security and compliance.