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
Experience | Primary Focus | Role Type | Key Strength |
8+ years | Bare-metal firmware | Senior IC / Technical Owner | Hardware debugging & product delivery |
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.
Role Emphasis This is not only a coding role. The successful candidate must own firmware outcomes: requirements clarification, architecture decisions, implementation, validation, release readiness, field issue resolution, and ongoing product improvement. |
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
Core Firmware Capabilities · Bare-metal embedded systems · Interrupt-driven firmware design · State-machine architecture · Low-level driver development · Timer, ADC, PWM, GPIO, UART, SPI, I2C and CAN interfaces · Memory management and performance optimization · Bootloader and firmware update mechanisms · Watchdog, fault handling, diagnostics and recovery logic | Communication & Product Interfaces · CAN / CANopen · RS-485 and Modbus RTU · UART, SPI, I2C · USB · Ethernet and TCP/IP · MQTT or connected-product messaging preferred · Sensor, actuator, motor-control, relay, and industrial I/O interfaces · Production test and factory programming interfaces |
Development Tools & Equipment
IDEs / Development Environment · Visual Studio Code · Eclipse · MPLAB X · STM32CubeIDE | Source Control & Collaboration · Git · GitHub · Bitbucket |
Debugging & Test Equipment · Oscilloscopes · Logic analyzers · Protocol analyzers · Multimeters · Signal generators · J-Link debuggers · ST-Link debuggers | Build, Automation & Quality · CMake · Makefiles · Python scripting · CI/CD pipelines · Static analysis tools · Unit testing frameworks · Code coverage tools · Requirements traceability tools · Code review tools |
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
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