Senior Firmware Engineer
Location: Bristol; Hybrid
Join us at Smartbox as a Senior Firmware Engineer!
Are you a passionate Firmware Engineer wanting to make a real impact by giving a voice to those without speech? Smartbox is looking for a dedicated individual to help improve the lives of people with disabilities.
Your Impact
* Technical Project Delivery: Deliver multi-disciplinary projects, meeting scope, time, budget and quality requirements, and coordinating others as needed.
* Firmware Architecture and Lifecycle: Develop reliable, portable firmware with a long-life cycle.
* Firmware Development: Design, develop and maintain embedded firmware in C for Zephyr RTOS and Embedded Linux, including board bring up, drivers and HALs.
* Code Quality and Standards: Set and uphold coding, documentation and review standards, ensuring best practices in architecture, modularity, fault tolerance and testability.
* Test strategy and Automation: Apply strong automated testing practices following the Test Pyramid, including unit, component, contract and hardware-in-the-loop tests, with CI automation to prevent regressions.
* Test Software and Tooling: Build and maintain automated test harnesses, GUIs and utility tools (e.g. Python, C#) to support development, validation and manufacturing.
* Libraries and Developer Experience: Create libraries and demo applications in C compatible languages (C#, C++) to support subsystem validation and cross-team integration.
* Verification and Validation: EAD verification through lab testing, user trials and real-world use, ensuring documentation supports regulatory compliance.
* Quality Assurance: Analyse and resolve quality issues promptly, feeding insights back into designs and processes to drive continuous improvement.
* Technical Strategy: Contribute to strategy for reliable, mission-critical firmware, clearly communicating trade-offs and enabling strong decision making.
* Mentoring and Leadership: Mentor Engineers, provide coaching and support, and help foster a positive, collaborative team culture.
Essential Qualifications / Skills / Experience
* Degree or equivalent experience in an engineering subject (Electronics, Computer Science, Software), Physics, Mathematics, or another scientific subject.
* 8+ years of experience in embedded software development in C.
* A strong knowledge of Computer Science fundamentals in data structures, algorithm design, problem-solving, and complexity analysis.
* A strong grounding in embedded software architecture, with a focus on maintainability, modularity, fault-tolerance and testability.
* Confident and experienced with automated testing, including unit, integration and system tests, mocking and automation frameworks.
* A strong understanding of API design and the creation of clear, stable abstractions for hardware / firmware interaction.
* Skilled at debugging in constrained environments and using hardware / software debugging tools.
* A proven track record of innovation and quality software development throughout the entire software product lifecycle.
* Ability to solve complex technical problems in elegant and maintainable ways, demonstrating systems thinking across hardware, firmware and application layers.
* Experience with embedded platforms (for example: Embedded Linux, Arduino, STM32, Nordic, Zephyr RTOS).
* A passion and drive for excellence in software craftsmanship.
* Linux, Bash / shell, CI (Continuous integration) experience.
* Ability to read electronics schematics and collaborate effectively with Hardware Engineers during bring-up and debugging.
* Technical leadership through influence able to guide architecture and standards, mentor others, and improve team-wide practices.
* Practical, proactive mindset comfortable taking initiative and working through ambiguity in a fast-moving team.
* Proven experience in people or team management, with the ability to lead, motivate, and develop others.
* Strong communication and interpersonal skills, with the ability to build positive working relationships at all levels.
* Proven ability to foster high performing, engaged, and collaborative teams.
Rewards and Benefits
Explore competitive salary, private medical insurance, hybrid working, wellness benefits and paid volunteering days.
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