Senior embedded systems/RTOS troubleshooter

Role:- Senior Embedded Systems/RTOS troubleshooter

Location:- Remote, US-based

8–15 years experience expected

Must have:

• Look at what "reproduce customer environments" and "identify root causes" actually mean in this stack:
• VxWorks is an RTOS written in C. Its kernel, drivers, BSPs (board support packages) — all C, with some C++ in newer components. If a customer reports a kernel panic, a driver hang, or a timing bug, you're reading disassembly, stack traces, and C source to figure out what broke.
• Wind River Linux — same story at the kernel/driver level (C), though more of the userspace tooling (systemd, udev, Yocto build layers) is scriptable.
• BSPs and drivers — this is entirely C/C++. You cannot debug a device driver interacting incorrectly with hardware without reading (and often instrumenting or patching) that C/C++ code directly.
• Toolchains like Diab, GCC, Clang, Workbench — these compile C/C++. Understanding compiler behavior, optimization bugs, linker issues, or toolchain diagnostics requires fluency in what the C/C++ source is supposed to produce at the binary level.
• Simics/QEMU simulation — used to simulate hardware behavior so you can step through C/C++ code in a debugger without needing physical hardware.

What you'd actually do:

• This is deep technical support, not a help desk — think tier-3/escalation engineering:
• Reproduce customer environments in internal labs
• Debug across OS, hardware, networking, virtualization, and embedded/real-time systems
• Find root causes, build workarounds, document suspected product defects
• Own customer-facing communication on critical/escalated cases
• Build knowledge-base content and mentor junior support engineers
• Act as a liaison between Support, Product Management, and Engineering

Nice-to-haves:

• Direct Wind River product experience
• Aerospace/defense/telecom/industrial (safety-critical) domain background
• Kubernetes, OpenStack, DevOps, cloud/container experience
• Experience authoring knowledge-base articles or leading escalations

Bottom line: They want a senior embedded systems/RTOS troubleshooter — someone who's lived in VxWorks and Wind River Linux internals, can debug down to the driver/kernel level, and can also communicate well enough to manage high-stakes customer escalations and mentor others. It's a niche, deep-specialist role, not a generalist IT support gig.