Sr Staff Software Engineer

Ambiq; Austin (TX); On-site; USD 180,000 - 240,000; Full time

Job summary

Ambiq is hiring a Sr. Staff Software Engineer, Power Management in Austin, TX to drive software architecture for our SDK power management stack on ARM Cortex-M cores.

You will partner with hardware, validation, and product teams to shape low-power strategies and deliver production-ready software on aggressive schedules. The role requires 10+ years in embedded systems, expert C/C++, RTOS experience, and a track record of leading architecture and cross-functional initiatives.

Qualifications

• 10+ years of embedded software experience on ARM Cortex-M.
• Expert-level C/C++ with low-level firmware and HAL.
• Experience with power management, clocks, memory retention.
• Proven ability to lead architecture and cross-functional teams.
• Hands-on debugging, profiling, and performance tuning.
• Familiarity with RTOS ports and device drivers.
• FreeRTOS or Zephyr preferred.
• Proficient with build tools, Git, CI, and testing.
• Strong communication and problem-solving skills.

Responsibilities

• Define software requirements based on input from SoC hardware architects and product teams.
• Design, develop, debug, profile, and optimize the power management software.
• Own the SoC software architecture, performance, and power optimization.
• Collaborate with product marketing, validation, and field teams to map use cases to software.
• Review designs, code, test plans, and validation results to ensure quality.
• Lead cross-functional technical discussions to resolve architectural issues.

Skills

C/C++ programming

Embedded software for ARM Cortex-M

Power management

RTOS experience

Debugging and profiling

Technical leadership

Hardware collaboration

Education

Bachelor's or Master's degree in EE/CE/CS

Tools

JTAG/SWD

Oscilloscopes

Power analyzers

Git

CI/CD tools

ARM toolchain

FreeRTOS/Zephyr

Job description

Company Overview

Ambiq is on a mission to enable intelligence everywhere - powering the AI edge revolution with the world's lowest-power semiconductor solutions. Built on our proprietary sub- and near-threshold technology, our chips deliver multi-fold improvements in energy efficiency without costly process scaling. Since 2010, we've shipped over 300 million units to customers building smarter wearables, medical devices, IoT products, and AI-powered edge applications. Our cross-functional teams span design, research, development, production, marketing, sales, and operations across Austin, Hsinchu, Shanghai, Shenzhen, and Singapore. We move fast, tackle hard problems, and create space for people to grow through complex, meaningful work that shapes the future of technology. We're looking for self-motivated, creative problem-solvers who are eager to push technological limits and make a real impact in energy efficiency. At Ambiq, we live by five values: Innovate. Collaborate. Focus. Learn. Achieve. If that's you, join us - the intelligence everywhere revolution starts here. This role will be on-site 5 days a week in NW Austin.

Scope

As the Sr. Staff Software Engineer, Power Management at Ambiq, you will drive the software architecture, requirements, development, testing, and performance optimization of the SDK power management software for our latest family of low-power Edge AI MCUs. In this role, you will work closely with SoC hardware power architects, product marketing, validation, and our IP vendors to define the software architecture, functional partitioning, and requirements for the platform's power management infrastructure. You will provide technical leadership and architectural direction to the software development and system test teams, ensuring the delivery of robust, production-quality software on schedule. The role encompasses the power management infrastructure, memory control and retention, clock management, low-power operating modes, and software techniques for optimizing system-level power consumption. The successful candidate will have extensive experience in early-stage software architecture and hands-on embedded software development. They must have a proven track record of designing, implementing, debugging, profiling, and optimizing embedded software for ARM Cortex-M processors using an RTOS. Experience developing low-level firmware, power management software, device drivers, and hardware abstraction layers is essential. The ideal candidate is a strong technical leader who enjoys solving complex technical problems while remaining actively involved in software design, implementation, code reviews, and debugging.

Responsibilities

• Define software requirements and functional allocations based on evolving input from SoC hardware architects, product marketing, software architects, validation and software development teams.
• Design, develop, debug, profile, and optimize the AmbiqSuite SDK power management software, including power modeling and characterization under a wide range of operating conditions.
• Own the SoC software architecture, performance, and power optimization, identifying opportunities to reduce power consumption while maintaining system performance and functionality.
• Work closely with product marketing, field engineering, validation, and system test teams to understand customer use cases and translate them into software architecture, implementation, and test requirements.
• Serve as the technical authority for power management software, reviewing software designs, architecture, code, test plans, and validation results to ensure quality, performance, and low-power operation.
• Drive cross-functional technical discussions with hardware architects, firmware developers, validation, and IP vendors to resolve architectural issues and ensure successful product execution.
• Diagnose complex system-level issues spanning hardware and software, and evaluate architectural trade-offs to achieve the optimal balance of power, performance, cost, and implementation complexity.
• Develop software for low-power operating modes, clock management, memory retention, wake-up sequencing, and other power management infrastructure components.
• Define and implement methodologies, tools, and metrics for measuring, profiling, and optimizing software power consumption.
• Work with relevant teams to ensure power-optimized implementation of the RTOS ports for Ambiq SoCs.
• Provide technical leadership through design reviews, code reviews, technical mentoring, and by establishing software development best practices.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's or Master's degree in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, Computer Science, or a related field.
• 10+ years of experience developing embedded software for ARM Cortex-M-based systems in bare-metal and RTOS environments.
• Expert-level C/C++ programming skills, with experience developing low-level firmware, device drivers, hardware abstraction layers (HAL), and startup code. Experience with ARM assembly language is a plus.
• Strong understanding of SoC architecture, including processor subsystems, memory hierarchy, bus interconnects, interrupts, DMA engines, cache architectures, memory protection, inter-processor communication, and shared memory systems.
• Proven experience designing, implementing, debugging, profiling, and optimizing software for ultra-low-power embedded systems.
• Strong understanding of embedded power management techniques, including clock management, voltage and frequency scaling, power domains, memory retention, clock gating, and low-power operating modes.
• Experience profiling and analyzing power consumption across software and hardware boundaries, including identifying and resolving system-level performance and power bottlenecks.
• Hands‑on experience using embedded development and debug tools, including JTAG/SWD debuggers, oscilloscopes, logic analyzers, power analyzers, and software profiling tools.
• Experience developing software using modern software engineering practices, including Git-based source control, code reviews, continuous integration, and automated testing.
• Excellent analytical, problem-solving, and communication skills, with the ability to lead technical discussions across hardware and software disciplines.
• Experience defining software architectures and technical requirements for complex embedded systems is preferred. Knowledge of the power requirements of wireless protocols (BLE, WiFi, 802.15.4) is a plus.
• Experience working with FreeRTOS & Zephyr is preferred.
• Familiarity with at least one MCU IDE on Windows from ARM/Keil, IAR, Eclipse, or others.
• The candidate must independently manage assigned tasks, prioritize workload, and meet deadlines with minimal supervision. Proactive problem‑solving skills and the ability to seek clarification when needed are essential.

Must be currently authorized to work in the United States for any employer. We do not sponsor or take over sponsorship of employment visas (now or in the future) for this role.