Sr. Firmware Engineer

Responsibilities

Purpose:

Responsible for the development, installation and maintenance of Firmware related activities for new and existing products. May work with research teams to identify needs or resolve problems. Conducts testing on existing systems and designs and implements improvements.

A good working knowledge of hardware (including electronics), control systems, and digital signal processing and can also write basic Windows PC test harnesses as necessary to prove out firmware interfaces.

Must have a pro-active approach and work well within multifunctional project teams. The role requires the person to actively drive design quality and performance by championing a peer review process, undertaking failure mode analysis, and planning suitable risk mitigation activities.

Responsibilities:

The successful candidate will be responsible for the design and development of embedded firmware to support software components and low-level communications of the instruments, including:

• The embedded software design within a project and co-ordination of activities with other engineers and designers as required.
• Understanding the electronics and embedded software requirements for new instrumentation and developing a functional specification for these sub-systems.
• Development and introduction of innovative designs incorporating new technologies where appropriate.
• Testing of new ideas and concepts either by simulation or prototyping.
• Working within an interdisciplinary project team to resolve any issues involving the firmware systems performance, development time schedules and resourcing requirements.
• Supporting existing products, documenting changes and improvements.
• Designing and analysing firmware for complex programmable devices and systems of devices.
• Driving the development of prototypes, performance and verification testing.
• Supporting compliance, regulatory and quality requirements related to design activities.
• Engaging in all phases of new product introduction, including concept, architecture documentation, design, prototype, test, supplier interfaces, and manufacturing introduction.
• Conceptualisation, implementation and verification of complete instrument systems.
• Design releases - technical product documentation (firmware architecture and design development & test specifications).
• Transferring firmware to manufacturing, developing firmware download tools, troubleshooting and supporting ramp up.
• Development of low level diagnostic tools for engineering (and possibly service) usage.
• Support of Manufacturing and Field:
• Troubleshooting and problem resolution.

Process:

• Working within our product development process.
• Conducting design reviews.
• Producing the required level of documentation.
• Driving continuous improvement of the Firmware Engineering elements of our processes.
• Firmware Engineers work in a multi-disciplinary project team with other engineers; outside vendors; and individuals from other internal departments (procurement, manufacturing and marketing). In particular, being able to interface well with electronic engineers and software engineers to identify and fix system issues.
• A strong emphasis is placed on the ability to deliver systems to specification, on time and within their cost target.
• Engineers work within a structured development process designed to manage risk effectively.

Basic Qualifications

Required:

• Bachelor of Science or equivalent in Electronics/Physics/Engineering with a Computing bias.
• Minimum of 5+ years of recent design engineering experience in a high technology environment.  
• Proven ability to take embedded software designs from concept through to full manufacturing.
• Experience with multi-threaded embedded software designs using real-time operating systems.
• Ability to understand datasheets of complex electronic devices (eg ADCs, Microcontrollers, Motor drivers) and program them appropriately.
• Experience implementing servo control systems and digital signal processing in low latency real time applications.
• Ability to test out ideas and concepts using simulation and hands-on prototyping.
• Ability to program using C and/or C++. 
• Experience with the Microsoft Visual Studio tools or similar for developing test harnesses using C/C++/C#.
• Ability to use firmware development tools to troubleshoot own or existing designs.
• Proven ability developing with embedded Linux.
• Working knowledge of the TCP/IP stack.
• Experience with general digital hardware designs using glue logic and programmable devices such as CPLDs, FPGAs, ASICs and their programming tools.
• Excellent communication skills: both written and verbal.  
• Ability to engage and work closely with members of a cross-functional team, particularly in electronics, systems and software. 
• Self-motivation: showing initiative, attention to detail, and bias for action.
• Ability to assess technical risk and to formulate effective risk management strategies including analysis and evaluation.
• Ability to plan projects, providing timescale estimates and allocating/prioritising tasks accordingly.

Advantageous:

• Knowledge of Xilinx tools including Vivado/Vitis, and experience with Zynq-7000 SOCs.
• Knowledge and experience writing VHDL for both logic and data processing streams
• Knowledge of PIC/68k architectures.
• Experience of Ethernet / USB / Serial / Bluetooth LE comms.
• Experience of programming in assembler.
• Masters or similar qualification in Physics/Electronics Engineering/Computer Science.
• Interest in physics/optics.
• Optics, electronics, or thermal analysis experience.
• Experience with MPLAB/Eclipse/IAR.
• Experience with source control tools such as Git, Perforce, SVN.
• Experience in developing high precision designs.
• Experience of product development within a company making some form of measurement instrumentation.
• Familiarity with product design methodologies such as a life cycle model.
• Scientific background or interests.
• Some business knowledge.

Preferred Characteristics:

• Ability to work independently or as part of a large team.
• Possessing a task- and goal-oriented mindset
• Analytical thinking driven by data.
• Ability to see both the small and the big picture.
• Possessing strong organizational skills.
• Problem solving aptitude.
• Attention to detail.
• Adaptable to change.