Senior Firmware Engineer with AI/BCI (Brain Computer Interface)
Location: Palo Alto, CA β Hybrid (3β4 days/week onsite)
Duration: 12+ Month Contract, possible extension/conversion
Position Overview
We are looking for a hands-on Senior Firmware Engineer to develop and debug embedded firmware for a next-generation AI wearable / brain-computer interface (BCI) product.
The ideal candidate is strong in Embedded C/C++, MCU/SoC firmware, low-level drivers, RTOS, sensor integration, and board bring-up/debugging.
Key Requirements
5+ years of hands-on embedded firmware development experience.
Strong Embedded C/C++ programming skills.
Experience with MCU/SoC platforms such as STM32, NXP, Nordic, ESP32, Qualcomm, or similar.
Strong hands-on experience developing low-level peripheral/device drivers using SPI, I2C, UART, USB, GPIO, DMA, interrupts, timers/PWM, etc.
Strong RTOS experience with FreeRTOS, Zephyr, ThreadX, or similar.
Experience with sensor drivers and multi-sensor data acquisition, including DMA, buffering, synchronization, and timestamping.
Hands-on MCU/SoC board bring-up and hardware/firmware debugging.
Experience using JTAG/SWD, oscilloscopes, logic analyzers, or protocol analyzers.
Experience with low-power/sleep-wake state machines and power management.
Experience with BLE, Wi-Fi, wireless connectivity, and/or OTA is preferred.
Must have experience taking ownership of a firmware subsystem from development through integration and validation.
At least one shipped consumer product is required.
Strong Plus
Wearable / consumer electronics experience.
EEG, PPG, biosensors, or sensor-hub experience.
Embedded Linux / Raspberry Pi.
ARM Cortex-M / bare-metal development.
DSP/audio/camera firmware experience.
TrustZone or secure firmware development.
What the Client Really Wants
Someone who can work at the low-level firmware and hardware boundary β write MCU drivers, integrate multiple sensors, work with an RTOS, bring up boards, and debug issues across hardware + firmware + sensors + communication interfaces.
EEG/BCI experience is a plus, but strong hands-on embedded firmware, drivers, RTOS, sensor integration, and board bring-up experience is the core requirement.