Firmware Engineer, Secure Systems
Firmware Engineer building secure embedded systems for high-stakes cyber-physical defense applications. Requires 3-6 years of deep systems-level firmware experience, strong C skills, and background in offensive security or red teaming of embedded hardware.
About the job
Responsibilities
- Own firmware across RTOS, embedded Linux, wireless radios, GPS, and custom embedded hardware.
- Write and maintain system daemons and firmware modules with strict fault isolation.
- Own secure boot and verified firmware update pipelines end-to-end.
- Conduct adversarial review of firmware attack surfaces (e.g. USB, BLE, UART, OTA) and close what you find.
- Partner with RF and ML teams on high-throughput signal capture and real-time processing pipelines.
- Build and maintain hardware validation tooling; reduce bring-up friction on every successive board spin.
Requirements
- 3–6 years writing systems-level firmware for embedded targets with real depth, not glue code on top of HALs.
- Strong command of C with the ability to adopt new systems languages (Rust, Zig, C++) when appropriate.
- Proven background in red teaming, offensive security research, or adversarial testing targeting embedded systems and physical hardware.
- Reasons about trust boundaries, failure modes, and adversarial inputs before they become vulnerabilities.
- Thrived in an early-stage startup.
- Comfortable operating without perfect specs or complete information.
- U.S. Person status required (may involve export-controlled data).
Nice-to-Haves
- Shipped firmware on microcontrollers and OS-based embedded systems.
- Written firmware for systems with secure boot, verified OTA, or hardware-enforced trust boundaries.
- Done RF/SDR-adjacent work or integrated wireless radios at the firmware layer.
- Maintained embedded Linux systems (custom rootfs, systemd services, power management).
- Held a security certification or contributed to a CVE, hardware CTF, or published security research.
Skills
C, Rust, Zig, C++, Rtos, Embedded Linux, Secure Boot, Ota Updates, Rf, Sdr, Ble, Uart, Usb
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