Senior Firmware Engineer

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

About Drover

Drover is building a virtual fencing ear tag for cattle, and the platform around it to run the modern ranch.

Fencing is one of the oldest unsolved problems in agriculture. Ranchers spend billions of dollars a year building and maintaining physical fences, and every fence line locks land into a grazing pattern it wasn't made for. Virtual fencing is changing that, a generational shift in how ranches are run, bringing precision and productivity gains to an industry that has to feed a growing population with fewer resources.

But every system on the market today requires a collar: bulky, infrastructure-dependent, and built around electric shock. We're taking a path the industry thought impossible. We've shrunk virtual fencing into the ear tag, the form factor every cattle producer on earth already uses. Our tag combines low-power GPS, cellular and satellite connectivity, embedded sensing, solar power, and patent-pending muscle stimulation that guides cattle directionally rather than shocking them. Ranchers tag their cattle once and immediately start running their operation from their phone.

We were founded by Callum Taylor (Harvard, EE & fifth-generation ranching family) and Samuel Aubin (USYD, CS), who both grew up in Australian ranching towns. We built a working ear tag and a patent-pending stimulation method in twelve months (five times faster than competitors), and are now scaling manufacturing to put the technology on every head of cattle in the USA, Australia, and New Zealand.

We closed an oversubscribed seed round, signed a top-tier contract manufacturer, and are on track to launch commercially in Texas in Q1 2027.

We're headquartered in Austin, Texas.

About the role

As our senior firmware engineer, you will be working at the intersection of software and hardware on systems which are tested in some of the world's most perilous environments (on bulls in Montana, for instance).

Because we are an early-stage startup, you will have high levels of ownership in what you build. You will play a pivotal part in the development, monitoring, and architecting of the low-level firmware on our devices. We are looking for someone who is excited about joining us at our trial ranches, interacting with our cows, and getting their boots dirty.

The role is on-site at our East Austin office, with some travelling to our field office in Lockhart.

What You'll Do

• Help lead the embedded firmware development of a low-power cellular-connected IoT device

• Work across the company to define features and refine firmware architecture

• Write, test, and QA production code

• Implement and maintain a reliable, fail-safe over-the-air firmware update procedure

• Develop proof-of-concept prototypes using development kits and other prototyping tools

• Work closely with our electrical engineering team to perform component selection and board bring-up

• Work with OEM (domestic or overseas) to provide software support during engineering testing and manufacturing

• Support the founding team across all aspects of early-stage development - this is a startup!

Requirements

• 5+ years of experience designing embedded software for consumer or commercial electronics

• Fluent in C, including testing and debugging

• Experience developing firmware for memory-constrained microcontrollers (e.g., ARM Cortex-M series)

• 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

Nice to have

• Familiarity with logic analyzers and oscilloscopes

• Full-stack experience (Python, Node)

• Bachelor's or Master's degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, Electrical Engineering, or a related field

Benefits

• Meaningful equity package with a high trajectory start-up

• Health, dental, vision insurance

• Paid family and medical leave

• Unlimited PTO

• Collaborative environment with emphasis on strong team culture

• Ownership and responsibility