Embedded Developer

Are you looking for embedded work where "it compiles" isn't good enough it has to survive 5,000+ km and 30+ days underwater without a single reboot? This is hardware and firmware built for zero-margin-for-error conditions. Read on, if you are interested...

Job Title: Lead - Embedded Engineering

Location: Bangalore | Full-Time | Experience: 8-10 Years

About Client Company

Client Company is building autonomous ships and submarines that operate in the world's most hostile environments. We're executing India's flagship autonomous submarine project — the Jalkapi XLAUV — on order from the Indian Navy. This is an unmanned submarine weighing over 20 tons that can travel 5,000+ kilometers autonomously and operate in the ocean for 30+ days at a time.

We're creating some of the largest autonomous robots in the world, machines with direct impact on the global economy and national security. While autonomous cars in India may still be a dream, autonomous ships and submarines are already a reality, and it is possible to build for the world from India.

The Role

·      We are looking for Lead - Embedded Engineering to own the electrical, electronics, power systems, and firmware that bring our autonomous vessels to life. In this role, you will:

·      Own the vessel’s electrical and embedded systems end-to-end — firmware, PCB design, schematics, wiring, and power electronics.

·      Design the electrical and power architecture of the platform, from board level to whole-vessel wiring.

·      Work closely with our mechanical, software, and robotics teams to integrate, bring up, and field-test the platform.

·      This is a rare opportunity to build the embedded and electrical backbone of real-world autonomous platforms that operate in some of the most challenging environments on the planet.

Key Responsibilities

·      Lead & Own the electrical and embedded systems effort — the firmware, electronics, and power systems that run the vessel.

·      Design & Develop PCBs, schematics, and wiring diagrams for the whole vessel, covering compute, power, communication, and sensor/actuator interfaces.

·      Design driving and power-electronics circuits — DC-DC converters, power supplies, electrical isolation, and protection — with due attention to EMI/EMC.

·      Develop & Maintain firmware for microcontrollers and onboard compute, ensuring reliable real-time operation.

·      Integrate sensors and actuators — such as GNSS, INS/AHRS, altimeters, pressure and depth sensors, acoustic modems, thrusters, fins, and battery systems — into the platform.

·      Support hardware bring-up, wiring, and in water testing of the vessel, in coordination with the mechanical and software teams.

·      Drive power management and energy-system design for long-endurance autonomous operation.

·      Plan and conduct compliance and qualification testing of the electronics and power systems — including EMI/EMC, environmental, and related checks — to ensure the platform meets the required standards.

·      Maintain thorough engineering documentation — schematics, wiring diagrams, design records, and test reports — to ensure traceability and supportability across the platform's life.

·      Establish robust electrical and embedded development, review, and testing practices to ensure dependability during trials and at sea.

·      Support field trials (pool, harbour, and sea) — diagnosing and resolving embedded, electrical, and hardware issues on site.

·      Mentor & Guide embedded engineers and uphold engineering best practices.

Required Qualifications

·      8-10 years of hands-on embedded systems experience spanning firmware, hardware, and power electronics.

·      Strong embedded firmware skills for microcontroller-based systems.

·      Strong hardware design skills — schematic capture, multi-layer PCB design, and board debugging.

·      Experience integrating sensors and actuators over interfaces such as UART, SPI, I2C, CAN, and RS-232/485.

·      A working understanding of how device drivers interface with the higher-level software/autonomy stack.

·      Strong debugging skills across hardware and firmware.

Preferred Experience

·      Background in robotics, marine/subsea systems, defense, automotive, or aerospace.

·      Experience with autonomous or unmanned systems.

·      Familiarity with power system design

Why Join Company

·      Build the Hardware That Brings Autonomy to Life: You will build the electrical, electronics, power systems, and firmware that run autonomous vessels across a range of applications — from our flagship Jalkapi XLAUV, a 20-ton submarine travelling 5,000+ kilometres underwater, on platforms operating from the coast to the deep sea. The challenge of building hardware that runs reliably for weeks, beneath the surface, is unlike anything else being built in India.

·      Mission Impact: The electronics and firmware you build are the nervous system of vessels on live missions — including defence and security operations of national importance. Every board you design and every line of firmware you write directly shapes whether the platform performs, and returns safely.

·      Technical Ownership: You will own the embedded and electrical stack from the ground up — hardware, power, firmware, integration, and bring-up.

·      Cross-Disciplinary Work: Work at the intersection of electronics, power, mechanical, software, and robotics. Few embedded roles let you work this close to the full system you help bring to life.

·      Benefits: Compensation benchmarked to top-quartile for the role, health insurance for you and your family and other benefits.

We are seeking a high-caliber Firmware Lead to join our Engineering team at Gradera. In this role, you will be the technical anchor for the firmware squad, responsible for translating high-level architectural visions into robust, executable low-level designs (LLD). You will lead the design and development of firmware solutions on NXP-based hardware platforms, ensuring seamless real-time data acquisition and integration with cloud-based Machine Learning (ML) platforms. We are looking for a seasoned expert who can work independently without any supervision, taking full ownership of the firmware lifecycle from hardware abstraction to cloud-edge synchronization.

Our Core Tech Stack

Embedded & OS

• NXP SoCs/MCUs: i.MX, LPC, and Kinetis series.
• Yocto Project: Custom layers, recipes, BitBake, and kernel configuration for Linux.
• RTOS Platforms: Deterministic performance, task scheduling, and interrupt handling.

Development & Integration

• Languages: Mandatory proficiency in C/C++ and C# (.NET on embedded targets/IoT).
• Communication: MQTT, WebSockets, CAN, UART, SPI, and I2C.
• Cloud & ML: Azure IoT Hub, AWS IoT Core, and data streaming via Kafka or Kinesis.

Infrastructure & Security

• Security: Secure boot, encryption, and device authentication.
• DevOps: Containerization (Docker) and CI/CD for firmware.

Key Responsibilities

• Architectural Ownership: Convert high-level blueprints into detailed technical designs for NXP-based systems, ensuring optimal performance across hardware and software layers.
• Autonomous Execution: Lead the end-to-end development of firmware modules, making critical technical decisions and resolving complex blockers without supervision.
• ML Pipeline Leadership: Collaborate with Data Engineering and ML teams to architect streaming and batch ingestion pipelines, ensuring data is correctly structured for ML training.
• Cloud-Edge Synchronization: Design secure and reliable transmission protocols for device-to-cloud communication, focusing on edge-to-cloud integration.
• Standards Enforcement: Act as the guardian of engineering excellence, implementing security best practices (secure boot, TLS) and ensuring high code quality.
• Technical Mentoring: Act as a technical beacon for the squad, conducting rigorous code reviews and mentoring senior engineers in Yocto Linux and RTOS concepts.
• Strategic Troubleshooting: Lead the debugging of critical firmware issues across hardware and software layers, including OTA update implementations.

Preferred Qualifications

• 8 to 10 years of professional experience in embedded firmware development.
• Proven ability to work independently and lead technical squads in a fast-paced environment.
• Expert-level mastery of the Yocto Project and RTOS constraints.
• Deep proficiency in C/C++ and C# for embedded systems.
• Demonstrated track record of delivering low-level designs for edge-to-cloud ML systems.

Highly Desirable

• Industry Experience: Exposure to industrial domains such as Manufacturing, Logistics, or Transportation is highly regarded.
• Experience with Edge AI / TinyML and industrial protocols (Modbus, OPC-UA).
• Knowledge of Cybersecurity standards for secure device provisioning.

1. Working Experience in

·        C and/or C++ programming

o   Should have Project working experience in C or C++

o   Should have done feature enhancement and/or Bug fixing using C/C++.

·        System Programming knowledge in

o   Muti-threaded programming, Process contexts/forks/execs and system calls

o   IPCs (like Socket programming, Message Queues, semaphores)

o   Linux Operating system

o   File access calls, like file descriptor handled operations.

·        Enterprise Security domain and SaaS

o   IPSec, SSL VPN tunnelling

Responsibilities:

·        Collaborate with cross-functional teams, including hardware engineers, system architects, and product managers, to define software requirements and specifications for embedded systems.

·        Design and develop efficient, reliable, and scalable embedded software solutions that meet the defined requirements.

·        Write, test, and debug code in programming languages commonly used for embedded systems, such as C, C++, and assembly language.

·        Interface with hardware components, such as sensors, actuators, microcontrollers, and communication interfaces (UART, SPI, I2C,CAN etc.).

·        Develop and implement device drivers, firmware, and low-level software to control hardware peripherals.

·        Participate in code reviews to ensure code quality, maintainability, and adherence to coding standards.

·        Perform unit testing, integration testing, and system testing of the embedded software.

·        Analyse and optimize system performance, memory usage, and power consumption.

·        Collaborate with the quality assurance team to identify and resolve software defects.

·        Stay up-to-date with industry trends, tools, and technologies related to embedded systems and software development.

·        Document software design, code, and test procedures for internal and external use.

·        Provide technical support to other teams during product integration, testing, and deployment.

Qualifications:

·        Bachelor's or Master's degree in Computer Engineering, Electrical Engineering, or a related field.

·        Proven experience in embedded software development, including designing, coding, testing, and debugging.

·        Proficiency in programming languages such as C and C++.

·        Familiarity with Embedded C, 32-bit microcontroller,16-bit microcontroller hardware interfaces.

·        Knowledge of real-time operating systems (RTOS) and multi-threaded programming.

·        Strong problem-solving skills and ability to troubleshoot complex hardware-software interactions.

·        Excellent communication skills and the ability to work effectively in a team.

·        Familiarity with communication protocols (UART, SPI, I2C, CAN, Ethernet) is desirable.

·        Knowledge of security considerations in embedded systems is an advantage.

Location: Chennai

Key Responsibilities:

1.    Development, integration and testing of embedded software in the Embedded Linux RTOS

2.    Integrate Application based on Adaptive AUTOSAR Platform

3.    Contribute for Architecture, Detailed design, programming in C++ (11/14/17)

4.    Perform Unit, Integration Tests of developed Application

5.    Detail oriented systematic problem-solving approach in the embedded software.

6.    Debug embedded software on hardware platforms for issue identification and resolution

Minimum qualification criteria:

1.    Bachelor's degree in Electronics, Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, or related field

2.    2+ years of experience in software development in C or C++

3.    2+ years of experience in designing and implementing embedded systems for high performance, high reliability real-time embedded computing platforms

• 32-bit Microcontroller knowledge is essential (ARM Cortex based micro-controllers (STM32).
• Esp32 architecture knowledge is essential.
• Strong experience in C, C++, Free-RTOS
• Strong experience in CUBEMX IDE, MDK Version 5 – Keil, Arduino IDE environment
• Good knowledge in HW and communication protocols like CAN, SPI, UART, I2C, USB 
• Good knowledge in TFT Displays and Sensors is added advantage
• Good knowledge of implementation of motor controls as required, pulse width modulation schemes (PWM).
• Good knowledge of power electronics (TRIACs, MOSFETs, IGBTs, gate drivers) and require protections (Over/under voltage/current).
• Document firmware designs, specifications, test plans, revisions and produce test reports