Sr Staff Software Engineer

Ambiq Micro, Inc.; Austin (TX); On-site; USD 140,000 - 210,000; Full time

Job summary

Ambiq Micro, Inc. in Austin, TX is seeking a Sr. Staff Software Engineer, Power Management to lead the SDK's power management software for its low-power edge AI MCUs.

You will define architecture, requirements, and drive development with SoC power architects, product marketing, validation, and IP vendors to deliver robust, production-quality software on schedule. The ideal candidate has 10+ years in embedded ARM Cortex-M projects, strong C/C++, RTOS experience, and hands-on skills with low-power

Qualifications

• 10+ years of embedded software experience.
• Expert-level C/C++ with RTOS and ARM Cortex-M.
• Experience with power management, clocking, and low-power modes.

Responsibilities

• Define software requirements with SoC power-architects and teams.
• Design and optimize AmbiqSuite SDK power management software.
• Own SoC software architecture for power and performance.
• Collaborate with product marketing, validation, and IP vendors.
• Lead design reviews and promote best practices in software.
• Develop software for low-power modes and wake-up sequencing.

Skills

Embedded software

ARM Cortex-M

C/C++ programming

RTOS

Power management

Software architecture

Debugging & profiling

Hardware knowledge

Education

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

Tools

JTAG/SWD

Oscilloscopes

Logic analyzers

Power analyzers

Profiling tools

Job description

Ambiqis 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.

As set forth in Ambiq Micro, Inc.’s Equal Employment Opportunity policy,we do not discriminate on the basis of any protected group status under any applicable law.

If you believe you belong to any of the categories of protected veterans listed below, please indicate by making the appropriate selection.As a government contractor subject to the Vietnam Era Veterans Readjustment Assistance Act (VEVRAA), we request this information in order to measurethe effectiveness of the outreach and positive recruitment efforts we undertake pursuant to VEVRAA. Classification of protected categoriesis as follows:

A "disabled veteran" is one of the following: a veteran of the U.S. military, ground, naval or air service who is entitled to compensation (or who but for the receipt of military retired pay would be entitled to compensation) under laws administered by the Secretary of Veterans Affairs; or a person who was discharged or released from active duty because of a service-connected disability.

A "recently separated veteran" means any veteran during the three-year period beginning on the date of such veteran's discharge or release from active duty in the U.S. military, ground, naval, or air service.

An "active duty wartime or campaign badge veteran" means a veteran who served on active duty in the U.S. military, ground, naval or air service during a war, or in a campaign or expedition for which a campaign badge has been authorized under the laws administered by the Department of Defense.

An "Armed forces service medal veteran" means a veteran who, while serving on active duty in the U.S. military, ground, naval or air service, participated in a United States military operation for which an Armed Forces service medal was awarded pursuant to Executive Order 12985.