Senior Firmware Engineer, TF-A for Armv9 Platforms

Ampere Computing LLC; Portland (OR); On-site; USD 147,000 - 220,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Health insurance

Unlimited Flextime

401K retirement plan

Job summary

Ampere is seeking a Senior Software Engineer to design, develop, and support low-level platform firmware focused on Trusted Firmware-A (TF-A) for Armv9-based systems. You will collaborate with hardware and software teams across pre- and post-silicon stages to enable secure, high-performance compute.

Responsibilities include implementing TF-A, defining firmware architecture, validating pre-silicon support, and leading post-silicon bring-up while diagnosing complex issues.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's or Master's in Electrical Engineering, Computer Science, Information Technology, or related field—or equivalent practical experience.
• 5+ years with a bachelor’s degree, or 3+ years with a master’s degree.
• Strong C/C++ and Arm assembly-language programming skills.
• Hands‑on experience with 32-bit and 64-bit Arm architectures, including Armv8; Armv9 experience is strongly preferred.
• Experience developing low-level software, including firmware, TF-A/ATF, BIOS/UEFI, bootloaders, Linux, or Windows platform software.
• Strong analytical, debugging, validation, and test‑methodology skills.
• Knowledge of microcontroller hardware interfaces and protocols, including SPI, I2C, DDR3/DDR4/DDR5, and PCIe.
• Experience using source control, CI, and issue‑tracking tools such as Git, Jenkins, Bugzilla, and Jira.
• Experience with hardware/software debug tools such as JTAG, Lauterbach TRACE32, GDB, and/or OpenOCD.
• Strong understanding of software development lifecycle processes and Agile development methodologies.
• Demonstrated ability to independently own complex technical problems, work across multiple subsystems, and drive issues to resolution.
• Experience delivering maintainable, production‑quality software and supporting products throughout their lifecycle.
• At least two years of customer-facing experience diagnosing and resolving technical issues.
• Strong written, verbal, and cross‑functional communication skills.

Responsibilities

• Design, develop, integrate, and maintain Trusted Firmware-A (TF-A) for Armv9-based platforms.
• Define and maintain firmware specifications, architecture and design documentation, and technical collateral.
• Enable and validate pre-silicon software support across hardware models, emulation environments, and FPGA platforms.
• Lead post-silicon platform bring-up; diagnose complex issues and drive them through root cause, resolution, and validation.
• Debug challenging problems spanning firmware, boot flows, operating systems, and platform subsystems.
• Deliver features end-to-end, from requirements and implementation through validation, release, and lifecycle support.
• Partner with hardware design, validation, and software teams to ensure robust platform integration and product readiness.
• Support multiple platforms and projects for internal stakeholders and external customers.
• Work directly with customers to diagnose, communicate, and resolve technical issues in a timely manner.
• Produce technical whitepapers and other materials that support product marketing, customer engagement, and open-source outreach.
• Write high-quality, maintainable production code; participate in code reviews and help continuously improve engineering practices and development processes.

Skills

C/C++

Arm assembly

Armv9

Debugging

Cross-functional comms

Agile

Software lifecycle

Education

Bachelor's or Master's in Electrical Engineering/CS/IT or equivalent

Tools

Git

Jenkins

Bugzilla

Jira

OpenOCD

GDB

TRACE32

JTAG

Job description

Ampere is seeking a Senior Software Engineer to design, develop, and support low-level platform firmware focused on Trusted Firmware-A (TF-A) for Armv9-based systems. You will collaborate with hardware and software teams across pre- and post-silicon stages to enable secure, high-performance compute.

Responsibilities include implementing TF-A, defining firmware architecture, validating pre-silicon support, and leading post-silicon bring-up while diagnosing complex issues.