Staff Engineer, Embedded Firmware

Ayar Labs, Inc.; San Jose (CA); On-site; USD 170,000 - 210,000; Full time

Job summary

Ayar Labs, Inc. in San Jose, CA is seeking a Firmware Engineer to own the firmware development lifecycle for cutting-edge devices. You will drive firmware design from inception to customer deployment, ensuring seamless hardware validation and integration.

Work with analog/digital/photonic design teams to craft embedded control algorithms for multi-chip package systems and high-speed SerDes. Mentoring, cross-functional collaboration, and thriving in a fast-paced startup environment are expected.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's in Electrical/Computer Engineering or a related field.
• 4+ years of embedded firmware development experience.
• Proficiency in C and bare-metal firmware.
• Experience with microcontrollers and debugging tools.
• Version control with Git; familiarity with JIRA.
• Exposure to CI/CD tooling.

Responsibilities

• Firmware Architecture: collaborate with design teams to define micro-architecture for multi-chip systems.
• Drive embedded firmware development for high-speed SerDes enabled chips.
• Mentor junior engineers and provide technical leadership.
• Collaborate cross-functionally with hardware, software, validation and systems teams.

Skills

C programming

Bare-metal firmware

Embedded systems

Microcontrollers

Git

CI/CD

JIRA

Debugging tools

Python scripting

Education

Bachelor's in Electrical/Computer Engineering

Tools

Make

JIRA

Job description

Location: San Jose, CA (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 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.

We are seeking an exceptional Firmware Engineer to own the firmware development lifecycle for our groundbreaking products.

In this critical 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

• Firmware Architecture: Collaborate closely with analog/mixed-signal, digital, and photonic block designers to develop sophisticated control algorithms for our photonic circuits and establish the micro-architecture and embedded requirements for our multi-chip package systems.
• Drive embedded firmware development: Design, develop, and optimize firmware for controlling complex electronic-photonic chips featuring multiple high-speed SerDes.
• Provide Technical Leadership: Mentor and guide junior engineers, contributing to their professional growth and development.
• Collaborate Cross-Functionally: Partner effectively with diverse teams, including hardware, software, validation and systems engineers, to achieve project goals.

Basic Qualifications

• Bachelor's in Electrical/Computer Engineering or a related field with 4+ years of experience.
• Proven expertise in bare-metal embedded firmware development, with strong programming skills in C.
• Hands-on, proactive approach with the ability to thrive in a fast-paced, dynamic startup environment.
• Experience with various microcontrollers and firmware debugging tools.
• Proficiency with modern version control workflows (e.g., Git).
• Familiarity with project management tools (JIRA), and CI/CD tools.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience in embedded firmware development for high-speed electronics and photonics applications.
• Silicon bring-up experience for high-speed SerDes and photonics applications.
• Experience with scripting with high level language like Python.
• Experience with Make-based build flows.
• Writing firmware optimized for ARM CPUs.
• Ability to own architecture and development of firmware modules from scratch.

Salary range: $170,000 - $210,000

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.