Firmware Engineer Job Description Template

The firmware engineer develops the low level software that gives a device its behavior, from power on through to normal operation and fault handling. The role covers bootloaders, update mechanisms, peripheral control and the reliability features that matter when a device cannot simply be restarted by a user. In regulated products this work is documented and verified to the same standard as the rest of the software.

Typical Duties and Responsibilities

• Develop firmware including bootloaders and update mechanisms
• Implement peripheral control and low level device functionality
• Design fault detection, recovery and safe state behavior
• Optimize firmware for memory footprint and power consumption
• Support secure boot and firmware integrity verification
• Debug timing, concurrency and hardware interaction issues
• Write test procedures and execute verification against them
• Support production programming and manufacturing test
• Maintain firmware documentation and version records
• Investigate field failures and produce corrective updates

Education

• Bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering, computer engineering or a related field

Required Skills and Experience

• 3+ years of firmware development on embedded platforms
• Expert C with strong understanding of the underlying hardware
• Experience with bootloaders and field update mechanisms
• Knowledge of low power design and power management
• Ability to debug with oscilloscopes, logic analyzers and debuggers
• Understanding of secure boot and firmware signing
• Rigorous verification practice
• Clear technical documentation

Preferred Qualifications

• Medical or another regulated device background
• Experience with wireless connectivity such as Bluetooth Low Energy