Senior Real-Time Embedded Control Systems Lead

Cisco Systems, Inc; Maynard (MA); On-site; USD 166,000 - 238,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Medical, dental, and vision insurance

401(k) with company matching

Paid parental leave

Disability coverage

Life insurance

Job summary

Acacia, part of Cisco, is a leader in high‑speed optical transceivers and interconnects, expanding into data center fabrics as AI workloads grow. Joining Acacia’s Software team in Maynard, MA means collaborating with world-class engineers to push real-time embedded systems and control algorithms for optical modules.

The role focuses on design and implementation of PID controllers, bare‑metal and RTOS firmware, and reliable firmware releases for high‑performance hardware.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in Electrical, Electronics, or Computer Engineering or related field with 8+ years of professional experience.
• 6+ years in low-level embedded C and C++ programming for physical hardware control.
• 5+ years development of embedded firmware on bare-metal systems and real-time operating systems (RTOS such as VxWorks, FreeRTOS, ThreadX, or similar).
• Design, implementation and tuning real-time control systems (e.g., closed-loop feedback, PID control algorithms, or motion/thermal control loops) on embedded microcontrollers (such as ARM Cortex-M or Cortex-R).
• Ability to work 100% onsite during the initial one-year onboarding period, (with hybrid flexibility available thereafter).

Responsibilities

• Design, tune, and optimize real-time closed-loop control algorithms on bare-metal and RTOS microcontroller platforms.
• Develop highly efficient, compact embedded C/C++ firmware to configure, monitor, and calibrate hardware subsystems on ARM cores.
• Collaborate with Hardware, Optics, and Calibration teams to bring up new boards and debug electro-optical interactions.
• Implement firmware state machines, low-level peripheral drivers, and high-reliability data/control paths.
• Own critical firmware features from algorithm simulation to production release, ensuring reliability under demanding optical conditions.

Skills

Embedded C

Embedded C++

RTOS development

ARM Cortex-M/R

Control theory

On-site work

Education

Bachelor's degree in Electrical, Electronics, or Computer Engineering

Tools

Git

Jira

Perforce

Python

MATLAB

Oscilloscopes

Logic analyzers

Optical spectrum analyzers

Job description

Acacia, part of Cisco, is a leader in high‑speed optical transceivers and interconnects, expanding into data center fabrics as AI workloads grow. Joining Acacia’s Software team in Maynard, MA means collaborating with world-class engineers to push real-time embedded systems and control algorithms for optical modules.

The role focuses on design and implementation of PID controllers, bare‑metal and RTOS firmware, and reliable firmware releases for high‑performance hardware.