Senior Firmware Engineer

MANDATORY CRITERIA:

• Education: B.Tech / M.Tech in ECE / CSE / IT
• Experience: 10–12 years in hardware board design, system hardware engineering, and full product deployment cycles
• Proven expertise in digital, analog, and power electronic circuit analysis & design
• Strong hands-on experience designing boards with SoCs, FPGAs, CPLDs, and MPSoC architectures
• Deep understanding of signal integrity, EMI/EMC, and high-speed design considerations
• Must have successfully completed at least two hardware product development cycles from high-level design to final deployment
• Ability to independently handle schematic design, design analysis (DC drop, SI), and cross-team design reviews
• Experience in sourcing & procurement of electronic components, PCBs, and mechanical parts for embedded/IoT/industrial hardware
• Strong experience in board bring-up, debugging, issue investigation, and cross-functional triage with firmware/software teams
• Expertise in hardware validation, test planning, test execution, equipment selection, debugging, and report preparation
• Proficiency in Cadence Allegro or Altium EDA tools (mandatory)
• Experience coordinating with layout, mechanical, SI, EMC, manufacturing, and supply chain teams
• Strong understanding of manufacturing services, production pricing models, supply chain, and logistics for electronics/electromechanical components

DESCRIPTION:

COMPANY OVERVIEW:

The company is a semiconductor and embedded system design company with a focus on Embedded, Turnkey ASICs, Mixed Signal IP, Semiconductor & Product Engineering and IoT solutions catering to Aerospace & Defence, Consumer Electronics, Automotive, Medical and Networking & Telecommunications.

REQUIRED SKILLS:

• Extensive experience in hardware board designs and towards multiple product field deployment cycles.
• Strong foundation and expertise in analyzing digital, Analog and power electronic circuits.
• Proficient with SoC, FPGAs, CPLD and MPSOC architecture-based board designs.
• Knowledgeable in signal integrity, EMI/EMC concepts for digital and power electronics.
• Completed at least two project from high-level design to final product level deployment.
• Capable of independently managing product’s schematic, design analysis DC Drop, Signal Integrity, and coordinating reviews with peer of layout, mechanical, SI, and EMC teams.
• Sourcing and procurement of electronic components, PCBs, and mechanical parts for cutting-edge IoT, embedded, and industrial product development.
• Experienced in board bring-up, issue investigation, and triage in collaboration with firmware and software teams.
• Skilled in preparing hardware design documentation, validation test planning, identifying necessary test equipment, test development, execution, debugging, and report preparation.
• Effective communication and interpersonal skills for collaborative work with cross-functional teams, including post-silicon bench validation, BIOS, and driver development/QA.
• Hands-on experience with Cadence Allegro/Altium EDA tools is essential.
• Familiarity with programming and scripting languages like Python and Perl, and experience in test automation is advantageous.
• Should have excellent exposure with coordination of Manufacturing Services, pricing model for production value supply chain & Logistics in electronics and electromechanical components domain.

Job Summary

We are seeking a highly skilled and motivated Linux Device Driver Engineer with strong C/C++ programming skills and hands-on experience in Linux driver development. The ideal candidate will have a proven track record of working with kernel modules and hardware interfaces, and be comfortable debugging and optimizing low-level system software.

Key Responsibilities

• Porting existing Linux device drivers to new platforms, SoCs, and kernel versions.
• New driver development for custom hardware components and peripherals.
• Debugging kernel and driver-level issues using industry-standard tools.
• Integration & bring-up of hardware with Linux-based systems.
• Collaborate with hardware teams to interpret specifications and enable device functionality.
• Optimize drivers for performance, reliability, and resource efficiency.
• Write clear technical documentation for driver APIs, design, and integration steps.

Required Skills & Qualifications

• Bachelor’s/Master’s in Computer Science, Electronics, or related field.
• 4 to 8 years of professional experience in software development.
• Strong proficiency in C/C++ programming and memory management.
• Hands-on experience with any Linux device driver (character, block, network, USB, PCIe, I2C, SPI, etc.).
• Good understanding of Linux kernel architecture, module programming, and build systems.
• Knowledge of interrupt handling, DMA, and device tree configuration.
• Familiarity with cross-compilation and embedded Linux toolchains.
• Experience with debugging tools (GDB, ftrace, perf, printk, etc.).
• Version control experience (Git).

Preferred Skills

• Exposure to multiple driver types (networking, storage, multimedia, etc.).
• Experience with Yocto, Buildroot, or similar embedded Linux environments.
• Knowledge of real-time Linux and RT patches.
• Scripting knowledge (Python, Bash) for testing and automation.

Soft Skills

• Strong analytical and debugging skills.
• Good communication and collaboration abilities.
• Ability to work independently and take ownership of deliverables.

Lifespark Technologies is looking for individuals with a passion for impacting real lives through technology. Lifespark is one of the most promising startups in the Assistive Tech space in India, and has been honoured with several National and International awards. Our mission is to create seamless, persistent and affordable healthcare solutions. If you are someone who is driven to make a real impact in this world, we are your people.

Lifespark is currently building solutions for Parkinson’s Disease, and we are looking for an embedded software lead to join our growing team. You will be working directly with the founders on high impact problems in the Neurological Healthcare domain. You will be solving some of the most fundamental and exciting challenges in the industry and will have the ability to see your insights turned into real products every day

Responsibilities :

1. RTOS based multithreaded software development

2. Building future ready, scalable software architectures

3. Liasing with hardware team to decide project requirements

4. Realtime IoT functionality development on ESP32 platform

5. Integration of third party services for cloud based communications and computation

6. Maintaining and documenting software via git (GitLab)

7. Coordinating releases, setup and maintenance of CI/CD pipelines

8. Managing AWS based backend services, integration with AWS services such as S3,

Sagemaker

9. Firmware security, Flash encryption, Bootloader encryption, secure communications

10. Deep integration with hardware team - stress testing hardware

11. Development of device drivers

12. Software testing and maintenance

Recommended experience :

1. Good command over Linux

2. Familiarity with real time tasks and timing sensitive system design

3. Familiarity with BLE/Wifi/etc IoT communication protocols

4. Familiarity with major third party platforms for cloud and ML/AI integration

5. Testing actual physical outcomes of programmed solutions

6. Deep familiarity with ESP-IDF

Location : IIT Bombay, Mumbai

Working mechanism : In-person

Compensation range : 4-12 lpa + ESOPs

What You'll Do

●       Develop embedded system architecture that is efficient and scalable

●       Develop multi-device system design, envision customer interaction, and corner cases to build issue-free design

●       Develop firmware code for Interrupt driven system which interacts with Android and cloud

●       Implement function safety, protection and security in the embedded system

●       Implement predictive hardware failure features

Who You Are?

●       Passionate individual who loves to work on embedded systems. a person who likes to drive things actively rather than waiting for tasks to get assigned.

●       Strong programming capabilities

●       Understanding of electronics and hardware

●       Clear thought process, believe in simplifying rather than complicating

●       Argue and fight over the opinions. Believe in delivering the best for the users

You Should Have

●       3+ year experience in embedded system design

●       Mastery in C/C++ for embedded systems. Strong fundamentals of Microcontrollers and their common peripherals.

●       Strong basics of C/C++, memory map, compiler functionality

●       Done multiple projects during graduation/post-graduation. Participated and performed in tech competitions. 

●       Experience working with actuators like motors (DC/brushless), LED/LCD and HMI interfaces, speakers, sensors etc

●       Experience working with motor control algorithms and PID controllers

• Proficiency with Linux OS and basic bash scripting

Skill Required

          Technical

• ●  The suitable candidate shall have most of the following knowledge /skills/experience:

• ●  Clear fundamentals of Analog and Digital Electronics. Knowledge of Full Hardware

• Design Life Cycle.

• ●  Knowledge of Circuit Simulation (PSPICE, NI Multisim, etc).

• ●  Hand- On experience with HW designing rules, PCB Layout in Cadsoft Eagle/Altium Designer etc.

• ●  Should have knowledge & experience with designing & developing 8/16 bit Microcontroller based close loop control systems and Arduino Platform.

• ●  Circuit building and Circuit Analysis Skills.

• ●  Component Data Sheet analysis skills.

• ●  Project Requirement Analysis Protocols/Ethernet, Wi-Fi, USB, Serial interfaces(SPI, I2C, RS485, RS422, RS232).

• ●  Hands-on experience in utilizing test equipment like DMM, Oscilloscopes, Logic Analyzers, Function/Signal generator/Solder Station (SMD/DIP).

• ●  Knowledge about Board Bring Up process.

• ●  Testing (Integration testing, protocol/Driver testing, etc.).

• ●  Experience in Embedded C programming and embedded system integration and can develop test cases for the same.

• ●  Knowledge of IoT Open Source Programming / Development.

• ●  Candidate will be responsible for research & development of M2M/IoT products.

• ●  Candidate will be responsible for end-to-end embedded system integration.

   

• Others

  Abilities on the following shall be of added advantage:

• ●  Component Procurement

• ●  Vendor Interaction

• ●  Tools Management

• ●  Costing and resource estimation

• ●  Team management, Good Communication Skills, Pleasant Personality, Positive Attitude & Highly Creative

•  

• Decision level
  Contributory: Makes major contribution to decision or policy judgment on Technical matters of IoT/ M2M Projects, Vending Machines

  Demonstrate (Key competencies)

  Healthy knowledge of most of the following:

• ●  Embedded C

• ●  8/16 bit Microcontrollers

• ●  Atmel Studio/ Arduino IDE

• ●  Schematic / PCB layout design in Cadsoft Eagle / Altium Designer (SMD/DIP)

• ●  Hands-on experience on Test equipment and solder stations (SMD/DIP)

• ●  M2M / IoT based development

Position Overview:

This position is part of highly skilled fimrware team that do software board bring up of bare silicon for next generation products. In order to write system software for embedded electronic products, this position requires academic background in electronics engineering to understand hardware concepts such as digital logic, schematics, and microprocessor communications to develop effective embedded software.

Candidate should have complete knowledge of Software development cycle from architecture definition to the implementation.

Responsibilities:

• Must wear multiple hats from analyzing field and factory reported issues to software integration.
• Be a liason for troubleshooting and debugging complex systems and identifying the root cause.
• Develop detailed design documents and customer facing application notes for the system and IOT features for Mobile routers.
• Act as a product lead and be part of bigger team in software bring up.   
• Ability to work on Low level software such as bootloaders and understanding of low level functional blocks is a must.
• Work on Linux kernel and configuration.
• Write or port device drivers for Ethernet, USB, GPIO, LED, Bluetooth, Accelormeter, LCD and touch screen.
• Debug stability issues in data routing between WAN and LAN interfaces.
• Work with Software QA with test plan and execution.
• Work with Hardware team to identify and root cause stability problems.

Experience/Requirements:  

• Demonstrable knowledge of C, C++, Assembly programming skills
• Overall 10+ years of experience in embedded environment preferabily Linux.
• Board bring up proficiency with bootloaders and other low level software, must be very good with debugging techniques.
• Experience in TCP/IP networking is must for trouble shooting throughput and other traffic issues.
• Driver experience with I2C, SPI, UART, LCD, Ethernet, PCIe is a plus.
• Experience with low level debugging using JTAG.
• Experience with Makefiles, and build environments such as PTXDIST, Yocto and Buildroot.    
• Experience with version control such as git and svn.
• Good communication skills and team player.
• Ability to work independently and autonomously to meet deadlines, in a fast-changing environment.

Education: