Senior Firmware Engineer

Sofar Ocean; San Francisco, Northern (CA, KY); On-site; USD 150,000 - 190,000; Full time

Job summary

Sofar Ocean in San Francisco is seeking an accomplished Embedded Firmware Engineer to design and implement FreeRTOS-based firmware for Spotter, Smart Mooring, and Bristlemouth open hardware. You will contribute across C and C++, with Python tooling, in a small, collaborative team and ship robust, maintainable code.

You’ll work onsite at Pier 28 several days a week, partner with electrical and mechanical engineers, perform tests and deployments, and help drive lasting improvements to our

Qualifications

• 5+ years of professional embedded firmware experience.
• Prior experience as a tech lead for a firmware team.
• Fluent in embedded C and C++.
• Comfortable with Python.
• Experience with FreeRTOS.
• Understanding of hardware peripherals and interfaces.
• Strong communication and collaboration skills.
• Strong systems thinking and software architecture fundamentals.

Responsibilities

• Design and implement FreeRTOS firmware with tests in C/C++.
• Break down complex efforts into parallelizable work streams.
• Develop host-side test, analysis and automation tools in Python.
• Participate in code reviews and design sessions.
• Write clear specs and documentation for users and colleagues.
• Collaborate with electrical and mechanical engineers to test and debug systems.
• Advocate for high-leverage features in prioritization.
• Execute frequent firmware releases with test plans and release notes.

Skills

Excellent communication

Strong systems thinking

Software architecture principles

Embedded firmware experience

Tech lead experience

Embedded C and C++

Python

FreeRTOS

Embedded platforms diversity

Hardware interfaces

Tools

Python tooling

Job description

The Role

You will be a key contributor to the embedded firmware design and implementation of all our hardware products: Spotter, Smart Mooring, next generation platforms and Sofar’s new open hardware connectivity stack — Bristlemouth https://www.bristlemouth.org. You thrive in small and collaborative multidisciplinary teams, and are eager to pitch in to debug and solve gnarly issues. You take pride in your craft. You strive to improve the health of our oceans and planet by shipping a cohesive, elegant and impactful product.

This role will be working onsite from our Pier 28 office at least 3 days per week and reporting to our Senior Engineering Manager.

Some projects you’ll be a part of:

• Building new Bristlemouth integrations for Spotter and Smart Mooring and evolving the open source Bristlemouth core APIs

• Collaborating cross-functionally to build new features on existing platforms

• Developing next generation platforms

• Advanced research and experiments with new and emerging technologies

• Integrated system testing, open ocean deployments, and the occasional throwing of things out of airplanes to see what breaks

Responsibilities

• Design and implement efficient and maintainable FreeRTOS firmware with automated unit and integration tests in a mix of C and C++

• Break down complex efforts into parallelizable work streams for your team

• Implement host-side test, analysis and automation tools in Python

• Participate in code reviews, brainstorms and whiteboard sessions with your team

• Write crystal clear specifications and documentation for both external users and internal colleagues

• Work alongside electrical and mechanical engineers in designing, integrating, testing and debugging systems

• Advocating for the highest leverage features and fixes in product prioritization conversations

• Execute frequent releases for internal proprietary firmware as well as open source Bristlemouth firmware, following test plans, building installers, writing release notes, and announcing the releases in friendly and inviting communications for wide audiences

Minimum Job Qualifications

• Excellent communication and collaboration skills

• Strong systems thinking ability

• Solid foundation of software architecture principles

• At least 5+ years of professional embedded firmware/software experience

• Prior experience as a tech lead for a firmware team

• Fluent in embedded C and C++

• Comfortable in Python

• Experience with FreeRTOS

• Breadth of technology experience including multiple embedded platforms

• An understanding of common hardware peripherals and interfaces

Bonus Points

• Experience with multiple forms of radio telemetry

• Experience with IPv6 networking

• Experience with ARM Cortex-M0, M4, and M33 cores

• Past work in IoT, robotics, drones and/or automotive products

• A passion for or connection to the ocean