Senior Firmware Engineer

Clera; New York (NY); On-site; USD 160,000 - 200,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Competitive salary

Equity participation

Job summary

Clera in New York City is seeking a founding-level embedded firmware engineer to define the architecture for a next-generation wearable device. You will lead from prototype to mass production, spanning BLE, sensor integration, and low-power design, working closely with hardware, algorithms, product, and industrial design.

The role requires 6+ years in embedded firmware, proven production shipping experience, strong BLE and ARM Cortex‑M expertise, and hands-on power management.

Qualifications

• 6+ years of embedded firmware experience in wearables or consumer electronics.
• Proven track record shipping to production.
• Deep BLE expertise and low-power architectures.
• Strong Embedded C/C++ and RTOS experience (FreeRTOS/Zephyr).
• Experience with ARM Cortex‑M microcontrollers and debugging tools.
• Power management design for low-power devices.
• Sensor integration via SPI/I2C/UART/GPIO/DMA.
• Ability to work in a fast-paced startup, in-person.

Responsibilities

• Architect and develop embedded firmware for battery-powered wearables.
• Own low-power wireless, sensor processing, and data pipelines.
• Design and optimize BLE connectivity for ultra-low power.
• Build power management systems to maximize battery life.
• Develop multi-core data pipelines for real-time sensing.
• Integrate sensors via SPI, I2C, UART, GPIO, DMA.
• Optimize firmware performance, memory, latency, reliability.
• Lead board bring-up, debugging, validation, and manufacturing support.
• Collaborate with hardware, algorithms, product, and design teams.
• Establish firmware testing frameworks and CI workflows.

Skills

BLE

Embedded C/C++

ARM Cortex‑M

RTOS

Power management

Sensor integration

Multi-core pipelines

Debugging

Tools

FreeRTOS

Zephyr

Job description

About the Role

Join a small, fast-moving hardware team building the firmware that powers a next-generation consumer wearable platform. This is a founding-level embedded engineering role where you'll help define the firmware architecture and take a category-defining device from prototype all the way through mass production. The work spans low-power embedded design, biometric sensor integration, BLE connectivity, and production engineering — everything it takes to ship a reliable, long-life wearable product.

This is a full-time, on-site role based in New York, NY. You'll work in person with a tight-knit NYC engineering team alongside hardware, algorithms, product, and industrial design.

What You’ll Do

• Architect and develop embedded firmware for battery-powered wearable devices.

• Own core systems for low-power wireless connectivity, sensor processing, and data pipelines.

• Design and optimize Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) connectivity for ultra-low-power operation.

• Build robust power management systems to maximize battery life.

• Develop multi-core embedded data pipelines for real-time sensor acquisition and processing.

• Integrate biometric and environmental sensors via SPI, I2C, UART, GPIO, DMA, and interrupt-driven designs.

• Optimize firmware performance, memory usage, latency, and reliability.

• Lead board bring-up, debugging, validation, and manufacturing support.

• Collaborate closely with hardware, algorithms, product, and industrial design teams from prototype to production.

• Establish firmware best practices, testing frameworks, and CI workflows.

What We’re Looking For

Required

• 6+ years of embedded firmware engineering experience building and delivering battery-powered wearable or consumer electronics products.

• Proven track record shipping consumer electronics from development through production.

• Deep expertise in Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) systems and low-power embedded architectures.

• Strong proficiency in Embedded C/C++ and RTOS-based systems (e.g., FreeRTOS, Zephyr).

• Experience with ARM Cortex‑M microcontrollers and modern debugging tools.

• Hands‑on experience with power management architectures for low-power embedded systems.

• Experience building multi-core embedded data pipelines and optimizing always‑on battery life.

• Sensor integration experience using SPI, I2C, UART, GPIO, DMA, and interrupt-driven designs.

• Board bring-up, debugging, validation, and manufacturing support experience.

• Comfortable moving quickly in a fast‑paced, collaborative startup environment and working in person.

Nice to Have

• Background in sensor fusion, signal processing, or biometric sensing.

• Experience with embedded platforms such as Nordic, Qualcomm, Ambiq, or STMicroelectronics.

• Familiarity with secure bootloaders, OTA firmware updates, wireless certification, and embedded security.

• Experience building wearable or health-tech devices.

Note: Visa sponsorship is not available for this role.

Compensation & Benefits

• Competitive salary: $160,000 – $200,000 annually, depending on experience.

• Equity participation in an early‑stage, venture‑backed company.

Location

This role is on‑site in New York, NY, USA. Candidates must be willing and able to work in person with the team in New York City. Remote work is not available for this position.