Staff AI Product Engineer, FW/SW

LinuxCareers; Milpitas (CA); On-site; USD 208,000 - 245,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Equity

Health coverage

401(k) with company match

Wellness benefits

Family support programs

Life and disability insurance

Paid leave

Discretionary time off

Company shutdown

Job summary

PsiQuantum is building fault-tolerant quantum computers based on silicon photonics technology. This is a senior individual contributor role at the intersection of silicon photonics, embedded systems, electronics, controls, and system software.

The engineer will translate photonic device and system requirements into robust control algorithms, firmware, APIs, diagnostics, and system-level software for complex embedded hardware systems.

Qualifications

• BS or MS in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, CS, Controls Eng, Physics or related field.
• Significant professional experience developing firmware and software for complex embedded systems.
• Strong programming in C/C++ for embedded systems.
• Strong understanding of embedded processors, microcontrollers, memory architectures, interrupts, timing, concurrency and hardware interfaces.
• Demonstrated experience developing software that directly controls physical hardware and strong system-level debugging skills across hardware and software boundaries.

Responsibilities

• Architect, develop, and maintain embedded firmware for control and management of silicon photonics products.
• Develop firmware interfacing with photonic devices, ASICs/FPGAs, DACs, ADCs, temperature sensors, power-management devices, and other board-level electronics.
• Implement closed-loop control algorithms for optical operating points, temperature, power, bias, alignment, and other device-specific control variables.
• Develop real-time and event-driven firmware for complex embedded systems; define and implement state machines for startup, operation, fault handling, recovery, and shutdown.
• Support remote firmware/software update mechanisms, configuration management, versioning, system recovery; develop diagnostic capabilities for manufacturing and field teams.

Skills

C/C++ for embedded

Firmware development

System debugging

Hardware interfacing

Education

BS/MS in Electrical/Computer Engineering

Tools

RTOS/Embedded Linux

Python

SPI/I2C/UART

Ethernet

Job description

PsiQuantum is building fault-tolerant quantum computers based on silicon photonics technology. This is a senior individual contributor role at the intersection of silicon photonics, embedded systems, electronics, controls, and system software. The engineer will translate photonic device and system requirements into robust control algorithms, firmware, APIs, diagnostics, and system-level software for complex embedded hardware systems.

What You’ll Do

• Architect, develop, and maintain embedded firmware for control and management of silicon photonics products
• Develop firmware that interfaces with photonic devices, ASICs/FPGAs, DACs, ADCs, temperature sensors, power-management devices, and other board-level electronics
• Implement closed-loop control algorithms for optical operating points, temperature, power, bias, alignment, switching state, and other device-specific control variables
• Develop real-time and event-driven firmware for complex embedded systems; define and implement state machines governing system startup, operation, fault handling, recovery, and shutdown
• Support remote firmware/software update mechanisms, configuration management, versioning, and system recovery; develop diagnostic capabilities for manufacturing and field teams

What You Need

• BS or MS in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, Computer Science, Controls Engineering, Physics, or related technical discipline
• Significant professional experience developing firmware and software for complex embedded systems
• Strong programming experience in C/C++ for embedded systems
• Strong understanding of embedded processors, microcontrollers, memory architectures, interrupts, timing, concurrency, and hardware interfaces
• Demonstrated experience developing software that directly controls physical hardware and strong system-level debugging skills across hardware and software boundaries

Nice to Have

• Experience with RTOS and/or embedded Linux environments
• Experience with Python or similar languages for automation, system test, data analysis, and hardware control
• Experience with embedded communication protocols such as SPI, I²C, UART, GPIO, Ethernet, or similar interfaces
• Experience developing software for hardware bring-up, characterization, and automated test

Base pay ranges by geographic zone: Zone 1 (Bay Area, NYC) $208,300–$244,700; Zone 2 (Los Angeles, Washington DC) $187,400–$220,200; Zone 3 (Austin, Chicago, Sacramento) $166,000–$195,800; Zone 4 (Nashville, Phoenix, remote locations) $145,800–$171,300 USD. Full-time roles include equity, competitive health coverage, 401(k) with company match, wellness benefits, family support programs, life and disability insurance, paid leave, discretionary time off, and company shutdown.