Staff/Senior Staff Firmware Integration Engineer

Heron Power Inc.; Scotts Valley (CA); On-site; USD 170,000 - 240,000; Full time

Job summary

Heron Power Inc. is seeking a Staff/Senior Staff Firmware Integration Engineer to own the path from development to release. You will ensure features, fixes, and architectural changes land correctly, safely, and on time to support company goals.

You will collaborate with stakeholders to define release scope, validate complex integration, and maintain traceability from requirements through test coverage. A strong background in embedded C/C++, RTOS, and HW-in-the-loop testing is essential, as is

Qualifications

• 7+ years in embedded firmware development with release experience.
• Hands-on embedded C/C++ proficiency.
• SIL and HIL test infrastructure experience.
• Experience releasing firmware for shipped hardware.
• Strong RTOS and hardware abstraction understanding.
• Ability to maintain high-quality standards in fast pace.
• Excellent communication between engineers and program teams.

Responsibilities

• Own the scope of software releases and change control.
• Translate milestones and field requirements into release targets.
• Identify integration risks and validation methods.
• Maintain traceability from requirements to test coverage.
• Develop integration guidelines and test assets, accelerate Dev/Test loop.
• Manage release burndown and go/no-go decisions.
• Define OTA strategy and tooling, including field soak and deployment.

Skills

Embedded firmware

Software integration

Release engineering

C/C++

RTOS

SIL/HIL

Communication

Tools

CI/CD pipelines

Test automation

JTAG debugging

Oscilloscope

Job description

What to Expect

Heron Power is a startup building cutting‑edge power electronics for the 21st‑century grid. We aim to debottleneck the growth of electricity generation and consumption with scalable, innovative, and cost‑effective hardware solutions, accelerating the electrification of everything.

Our first goal is to build better converters (inverters & rectifiers) to connect large‑scale renewables, storage, and loads to the grid. Heron's leadership team is made up of seasoned veterans who have designed and shipped gigawatts of power conversion products.

We believe no one person knows everything. We learn together, build together, and solve hard problems from first principles. You'll work in a fast‑moving, deeply technical environment where ownership and impact are real.

Job Overview

As a Staff/Senior Staff Firmware Integration Engineer, you will own the process that takes Heron's software from development to release — ensuring every feature, fix, and architectural change lands correctly, safely, and on time to support company goals.

Why This Role Is Different

This role owns overall health of the software in Heron’s products, ensuring the work comes together coherently, releases are scoped with intention, and validation is sufficiently rigorous. If you thrive bringing order to complexity and take pride in shipping quality code, this is the role for you.

How You Will Contribute

• Working with key stakeholders, own the definition and scope of software releases, change control over what is in, out, or deferred, and why.
• Translate program milestones and field requirements into concrete software release targets. Triage feature requests and bug fixes against business needs.
• Identify integration risks for each change and most efficient means of validation.
• Maintain traceability between requirements, implementation, and test coverage.
• Develop integration guidelines, guide the creation of test assets, and accelerate the iterative development / test loop for all team members.
• Manage ticket burndowns for each release and go/no‑go decisionmaking, ensuring overall program goals are met with minimum compromises.
• Captain and define the OTA strategy and tooling, including field soak strategies, coordination with customers, and factory deployment.

What You Will Bring

Must‑Have Requirements

• 7+ years in embedded firmware development, with at least one role focused on software integration, validation, or release engineering.
• Hands‑on embedded C/C++ — enough to read and review software contributions critically.
• Experience with SIL (software‑in‑the‑loop) and HIL (hardware‑in‑the‑loop) test infrastructure.
• Experience owning or managing firmware release cycles on shipped hardware products.
• Strong understanding of RTOS‑based systems, hardware abstraction, and embedded system architecture.
• Demonstrated ability to hold a high‑quality bar in a high‑paced environment.
• Clear, direct communicator who can translate between engineering depth and program‑level decisions.

Nice‑to‑Haves

• Power electronics or energy conversion domain experience.
• Hardware debugging skills (oscilloscope, logic analyzer, JTAG) — comfortable on the bench when validation requires it.
• Familiarity with safety‑critical firmware standards (IEC 61508, UL1998).
• Background in software CI/CD pipeline development or test automation.
• Exposure with OTA update mechanisms and fleet management.
• Manufacturing test and production qualification experience.

If you are passionate about technology and enjoy working in a fast‑paced environment, we would love to hear from you. Join us in accelerating the electrification of everything at Heron Power.

Heron Power provides competitive compensation (salary and equity) and benefits. The salary for this role ranges from $170,000 to $240,000 per year.