Sr. Staff Engineer, Embedded Firmware (bare metal)

Ayar Labs; San Jose (CA); On-site; USD 197,000 - 271,000; Full time

Job summary

Ayar Labs, Inc. in San Jose, CA, on-site, seeks a Sr. Staff Engineer to lead embedded firmware from inception to customer deployment.

You will drive firmware design for high-speed SerDes and photonic subsystems, collaborating with hardware, validation, and software teams to ensure robust integration. The role requires 5+ years in bare-metal firmware, C programming, Python scripting, Git workflows, and Make-based builds, with silicon bring-up experience.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's in Electrical/Computer Engineering or related field with 5+ years of experience.
• Expertise in bare-metal embedded firmware development and C programming.
• Experience with microcontrollers, firmware debugging, and CI/CD workflows.
• Proficiency with Git, Python, Make-based builds, and silicon bring-up.
• Ability to thrive in a fast-paced startup environment and collaborate across teams.

Responsibilities

• Design, develop, and optimize embedded firmware for high-speed SerDes interfaces.
• Collaborate with analog/digital/photonic designers to establish MCUs and architecture.
• Write unit/integration tests, participate in code reviews, and maintain CI/CD pipelines.
• Develop firmware test code for silicon bring-up and first silicon bring-up activities.
• Partner with hardware, validation, systems, and software teams throughout product lifecycle.
• Maintain documentation including APIs, architecture documents, and release notes.

Skills

Embedded firmware

C programming

Silicon bring-up

SerDes

Python scripting

Git

CI/CD

Make build

Firmware debugging

Education

Bachelor's in Electrical/Computer Engineering

Tools

Git

CI/CD tools

Python

Make

Debugging tools

Job description

Sr. Staff Engineer: Embedded Firmware

Location: San Jose (on-site)

Ayar Labs is shattering AI data bottlenecks by moving data at the speed of light. As pioneers of co-packaged optics (CPO), we are using light instead of electricity to move data faster, further, and with a fraction of the energy needed to fuel the explosive growth of AI models. Backed by industry giants like NVIDIA, AMD, MediaTek and Intel and manufactured in partnership with the world’s leading semiconductor ecosystem, Ayar Labs’ co-packaged optics solution is key to unleashing next-generation AI scale-up architectures. In this role, you will drive firmware design from inception to customer deployment, ensuring seamless hardware validation and integration. This is a unique opportunity to leverage your expertise in embedded systems, multi-chip package environments, and high-speed SerDes to shape the future of optical interconnect.

Essential Functions

• Design, develop, and optimize embedded firmware for controlling high-speed SerDes interfaces and electronic/photonic subsystems.
• Collaborate closely with analog/mixed-signal, digital, and photonic block designers to develop and implement sophisticated control algorithms for our photonic circuits and establish the micro-architecture and embedded requirements for our multi-chip package systems.
• Write unit tests and integration tests for firmware modules; participate in firmware code reviews; maintain high-quality firmware through CI/CD practices.
• Develop and execute firmware test code to support initial silicon power-on and bringup activities; debug hardware-firmware interactions at first silicon.
• Partner effectively with hardware, validation, systems, and software teams throughout the product development lifecycle.
• Maintain clear technical documentation including APIs, firmware architecture documents, module specifications, and build/release notes

Required Qualifications

• Bachelor's in Electrical/Computer Engineering or a related field with 5+ years of relevant industry experience.
• Proven expertise in bare-metal embedded firmware development, with strong programming skills in C.
• Experience with various microcontrollers and firmware debugging tools.
• Proficiency with modern version control workflows (e.g., Git), modern firmware development tools, and CI/CD tools.
• Hands-on, proactive approach with the ability to thrive in a fast-paced, dynamic startup environment.
• Silicon bring-up experience.
• Experience in scripting with high level language like Python.
• Experience with Make-based build flows.

Preferred Qualifications

• Ability to own architecture and development of firmware modules from scratch.
• Experience in embedded firmware development for high-speed electronics and photonics applications.
• Silicon bring-up experience for high-speed SerDes and photonics applications.

Salary Range: $197,000 - $271,000

Ayar Labs is an Equal Opportunity Employer and is strongly committed to all policies which will afford equal opportunity employment to all qualified persons without regard to age, sex, national origin, race, color, ethnicity, creed, religion, gender identity, sexual orientation, disability, veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by law. It is the policy of Ayar Labs to provide reasonable accommodation when requested by a qualified applicant or employee with a disability, unless such accommodation would cause an undue hardship. Veterans are more than welcome and encouraged to apply.