Senior Embedded Software Engineer

Alicat Scientific, Inc.; Tucson (AZ); Hybrid; USD 115,000 - 175,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

23 days PTO

14 weeks parental leave

Health, dental, and vision insurance

401(k)

Job summary

Alicat Scientific, Inc. is seeking an experienced embedded software engineer to own firmware for precision instruments in a role that combines hands-on hardware brings-up with software design. The position can be remote within the U.S.

or on-site in Tucson, AZ, with relocation assistance for on-site candidates. You will design control loops, work with real-time systems, and contribute to a mature product line used in aerospace, bioprocessing, energy, and environmental science.

Qualifications

• 6+ years of embedded software development in C on microcontrollers, in shipped products.
• Strong real-time fundamentals: interrupt-driven design, memory management, deterministic timing, RTOS-based or well-structured bare-metal architectures.
• Own firmware modules from design through production release.

Responsibilities

• Design and implement embedded C for flow and pressure instruments: control loops, filtering, calibration routines, drivers, and HALs.
• Build and maintain communication interfaces and industrial protocols, bootloaders, firmware update, configuration, diagnostics, and logging.
• Work hands-on with Electrical Engineering during hardware bring-up and debugging at the register level.
• Help build unit, integration, and hardware-in-the-loop testing and CI pipelines.

Skills

Embedded C

RTOS

Hardware bring-up

Unit testing

Git

Debugging

Real-time systems

Education

BS in Computer/Electrical Engineering or CS

Tools

JTAG/SWD

Oscilloscopes

Logic analyzers

Job description

Remote (U.S.) or On-site in Tucson, AZ · $115,000–$175,000 base · Relocation assistance available for on-site candidates

You will own the firmware that makes an Alicat instrument respond to a setpoint change in milliseconds and hold it precisely for years in the field. Every Alicat instrument is designed, built, tested, and calibrated in our own Tucson facility. Whether you work there or remotely, you'll follow your code from first board bring-up through production calibration and into customer systems in aerospace, bioprocessing, energy, environmental science, and advanced research.

The problems you'll work on

• Closed-loop control on real fluid dynamics, across wide flow ranges and dozens of gases, where response time and stability are both product specs.
• Signal processing on precision analog front ends, where noise, drift, and temperature effects decide whether the product meets its accuracy claims.
• Communication stacks and device logic that must behave predictably inside customers' larger systems, from a lab bench to an industrial control network.
• A mix of new product development and evolving a mature, widely deployed product line, so you'll design new architecture and also improve proven firmware.

What you'll do

• Design and implement embedded C for our flow and pressure instruments: control loops, filtering, calibration routines, drivers, and hardware abstraction layers.
• Build and maintain communication interfaces and industrial protocols, along with bootloaders, firmware update, configuration, diagnostics, and logging.
• Work hands-on with Electrical Engineering during hardware bring-up, debugging at the register and signal level.
• Help build out our unit, integration, and hardware-in-the-loop testing and CI pipeline.
• Contribute to system architecture, design reviews, coding standards, and release practices.
• Partner with Product Management and Applications Engineering to turn customer requirements into workable technical scope, and support manufacturing test and field diagnostics.

Our stack

ARM Cortex microcontrollers · FreeRTOS and bare-metal · C · GitHub · Hardware-in-the-loop testing and CI · Python test tooling

Your first year might include

• Owning firmware for a new instrument from bring-up through production release.
• Leading an improvement to our test or release infrastructure.
• Becoming a go-to engineer for one major subsystem, such as control, communications, or calibration.

What you bring

• 6+ years of embedded software development in C on microcontrollers, in products that shipped.
• Strong real-time fundamentals: interrupt-driven design, memory management, deterministic timing, and RTOS-based or well-structured bare-metal architectures.
• A track record of owning firmware modules from design through production release.
• Hardware bring-up and debugging experience with JTAG/SWD, oscilloscopes, and logic analyzers.
• Fluency with embedded toolchains, Git, automated testing, and static analysis.
• A BS in Computer Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Computer Science, or a related field is valued, but demonstrated experience matters more.

Experience with several of these is a plus

• Control and signal processing: PID tuning, digital filtering, sensor calibration.
• Interfaces and protocols: UART, SPI, I²C, USB, RS-232/RS-485, CAN, Ethernet, Modbus, CANopen, EtherNet/IP, IO-Link.
• Bootloaders and secure or robust firmware update.
• Hardware-in-the-loop testing and CI/CD for embedded targets.
• Manufacturing test integration.
• Embedded Linux or Python tooling.

No one has done all of this. If you've gone deep on several and want to learn the rest, we'd like to talk.

How we work

You'll join a multidisciplinary engineering group spanning firmware, software, electrical, mechanical, and test, reporting to the Lead Firmware Engineer. We avoid bureaucracy, make decisions quickly, and expect engineers to own real technical problems. We use modern practices, including code review and AI-assisted coding, testing, and review tools.

We also have the long-term stability of being part of Halma plc, a global FTSE 100 group of safety, health, and environmental technology companies.

Remote or on-site

This role is open to engineers anywhere in the U.S. Remote engineers travel to Tucson quarterly. On-site engineers work alongside Electrical, Mechanical, Test, and Production every day. Either way, you're part of the same team, the same design reviews, and the same release process.

If you'd like to be in Tucson, Tucson offers a lower cost of living than most engineering hubs, abundant sunshine, and mountains and desert trails minutes from town. The University of Arizona also anchors a strong technical community. Relocation assistance is available.

• 23 days of PTO plus standard holidays
• 14 weeks of fully paid parental leave
• Health, dental, and vision insurance
• 401(k)

About Alicat

Alicat Scientific builds high-performance mass flow and pressure instrumentation for applications where precision, stability, and reliability are essential. Design, manufacturing, testing, and calibration all happen in our Tucson facility.

Alicat Scientific is an equal opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, age, disability, veteran status, or any other legally protected status.

Applicants must be authorized to work in the U.S. without visa sponsorship, now or in the future.