Hi,

Our direct client is seeking a Senior Firmware Engineer for a contract role. If you are interested, please share your updated resume along with your hourly pay rate.

 Location: Mississauga, Canada ON L5T 1P2

Onsite 5 Days

Employment Type: Contract 6 Months

Senior Firmware Engineer

Job Description | Embedded Firmware, Bare-Metal Systems, Product Ownership

Position Summary

We are seeking a highly capable Senior Firmware Engineer with 8+ years of embedded firmware development experience to take ownership of product firmware, features, and firmware lifecycle execution across microcontroller-based products. The ideal candidate is a hands-on engineer with strong software development discipline, deep bare-metal firmware expertise, and proven ability to deliver robust production-ready firmware from concept through field support.

This role is best suited for an engineer who can independently define firmware architecture, develop features, debug hardware/software interaction issues, support validation and manufacturing, and drive long-term firmware maintainability. RTOS experience is a plus, but bare-metal embedded development is the primary focus.

Key Responsibilities

Firmware Ownership

·       Own firmware architecture, design, implementation, verification, release, and maintenance for assigned products or product platforms.

·       Take responsibility for firmware feature development, bug fixes, reliability improvements, and future roadmap enhancements.

·       Translate product and system requirements into clear firmware designs, modules, interfaces, and testable deliverables.

·       Drive technical decisions related to code structure, timing behavior, peripheral usage, communication interfaces, diagnostics, and firmware upgrade strategy.

·       Maintain firmware quality, readability, performance, and long-term serviceability across product generations.

Embedded Software Development

·       Develop embedded firmware primarily in C / Embedded C, with C++ used where appropriate.

·       Design and implement low-level drivers, hardware abstraction layers, control logic, state machines, bootloaders, communication handlers, diagnostics, and fault handling.

·       Apply strong software development practices including modular design, version control, code reviews, documentation, defect tracking, and structured release discipline.

·       Optimize firmware for memory usage, execution time, reliability, startup behavior, and deterministic real-time response on resource-constrained microcontrollers.

Hardware Integration & Debugging

·       Support hardware bring-up, prototype validation, design verification, production launch, and field issue investigations.

·       Debug firmware and hardware interaction issues using oscilloscopes, logic analyzers, protocol analyzers, multimeters, signal generators, and JTAG/SWD debuggers.

·       Analyze timing issues, peripheral behavior, communication failures, sensor/actuator interface problems, interrupts, resets, watchdog events, and intermittent system faults.

·       Collaborate closely with electrical, software, manufacturing, quality, product, and service teams to resolve technical issues quickly and systematically.

Verification, Release & Product Support

·       Create and execute firmware test strategies, validation plans, bench-level test procedures, and regression checks.

·       Support firmware release documentation, version control, build artifacts, release notes, and traceability from requirements to validation results.

·       Participate in root-cause analysis, corrective actions, design reviews, field issue reviews, and manufacturing test improvement activities.

·       Mentor junior and intermediate engineers on firmware design, debugging, coding practices, and product ownership behavior.

Required Qualifications

·       Bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, Software Engineering, Computer Science, or equivalent technical discipline.

·       Minimum 8 years of professional embedded firmware development experience.

·       Strong hands-on experience with bare-metal microcontroller firmware development.

·       Proven experience taking product firmware or major firmware features from concept through production release and long-term maintenance.

·       Demonstrated ability to debug complex firmware, hardware, timing, communication, and system-level issues.

·       Strong understanding of embedded software design principles, structured coding practices, interface design, testing discipline, and documentation.

Technical Skills

Development Tools & Equipment

Preferred Microcontroller Experience

·       ARM Cortex-M based microcontrollers

·       STM32

·       NXP

·       Microchip PIC / dsPIC

·       TI MSP430 or similar embedded controller families

·       Renesas, Nordic nRF, ESP32, or comparable microcontroller platforms

RTOS Experience — Asset Only

·       FreeRTOS

·       ThreadX

·       Zephyr

·       Ability to evaluate when bare-metal architecture is sufficient versus when an RTOS is justified

Soft Skills & Leadership

·       Strong ownership mindset and ability to drive firmware work with minimal supervision.

·       Excellent troubleshooting, analytical thinking, and technical judgment.

·       Clear communication with cross-functional engineering, manufacturing, service, quality, and product teams.

·       Ability to mentor other engineers and improve firmware development practices.

·       Strong documentation discipline for requirements, design notes, release records, test results, and issue resolution history.

Success Criteria

·       Takes full ownership of assigned firmware platforms and features.

·       Delivers stable, maintainable, production-ready firmware releases.

·       Improves firmware architecture, code quality, validation discipline, and debug efficiency.

·       Resolves hardware/firmware integration issues using structured debugging methods and test equipment.

·       Supports product quality, manufacturing readiness, serviceability, and long-term product roadmap needs.

We are an Equal Opportunity Employer