Software & Firmware Engineering Experts

Accountabilities:

• Apply hands-on software, firmware, and digital hardware expertise to technically complex engineering tasks involving real physical systems.
• Review and evaluate embedded firmware, FPGA/RTL designs, flight software, test automation frameworks, hardware interfaces, and system-level engineering workflows.
• Analyze architecture and implementation trade-offs involving real-time performance, timing, memory, compute resources, interfaces, reliability, fault handling, concurrency, and hardware/software integration.
• Assess the technical correctness, robustness, scalability, and practical feasibility of engineering solutions for embedded and hardware-connected systems.
• Identify implementation errors, incorrect assumptions, race conditions, timing issues, interface failures, resource constraints, and other system-level failure modes.
• Develop or review technically rigorous engineering problems, reference implementations, test cases, evaluation criteria, and supporting technical documentation.
• Apply practical experience across software development, system integration, hardware bring-up, debugging, verification, validation, test automation, and deployment.
• Provide clear, technically grounded feedback based on real-world engineering experience and production hardware constraints.
• Evaluate engineering approaches and solutions with consideration for reliability, performance, maintainability, and hardware/software interactions.

Requirements:

• 5+ years of professional experience in software, firmware, FPGA, embedded systems, or a closely related engineering discipline, including at least 3 years of recent, hands-on experience working with real hardware.
• Demonstrated experience taking responsibility for production hardware-connected software or firmware across meaningful stages of the lifecycle, from requirements and architecture through implementation, integration, bring-up, verification, debugging, and deployment.
• Deep technical expertise in at least one core area: embedded firmware and real-time systems; FPGA/RTL design and verification; flight software and safety- or mission-critical systems; or hardware test automation and hardware-in-the-loop infrastructure.
• Strong practical command of relevant technologies such as C/C++, Python, RTOS, bare-metal development, device drivers, bootloaders, embedded Linux, SPI, I²C, UART, CAN, Ethernet, Verilog, SystemVerilog, VHDL, FPGA toolchains, telemetry, and automated test systems, as applicable to your specialization.
• Extensive experience debugging software-hardware interactions and physical systems using tools such as JTAG/SWD debuggers, logic analyzers, oscilloscopes, hardware simulators or emulators, HIL/SIL environments, automated test equipment, and CI infrastructure.
• Proven experience with structured root-cause analysis and the ability to diagnose complex system-level failures.
• Experience developing, integrating, testing, or validating systems in real-world product or hardware manufacturing environments.
• Experience in industries such as aerospace and defense, space, automotive and EV, semiconductors, consumer electronics, robotics, eVTOL, industrial technology, energy, or medical devices is highly relevant.
• Ability to clearly explain architectural decisions, implementation trade-offs, test results, engineering assumptions, and failure mechanisms.
• Strong analytical and problem-solving skills with excellent attention to technical detail.
• Ability to work independently and communicate complex technical concepts clearly in a remote environment.
• Strong practical engineering judgment and a willingness to engage deeply with technically challenging problems.

Benefits:

• Competitive compensation of $100–$120 per hour.
• Fully remote, flexible engagement that can be completed on your own schedule.
• Independent contractor arrangement with payments made weekly through Stripe or Wise based on services rendered.
• Opportunity to contribute to advanced engineering and AI research initiatives.
• Work on technically challenging problems involving embedded systems, firmware, FPGA/RTL, flight software, hardware integration, and automated testing.
• Opportunity to apply practical production engineering experience to the development and evaluation of advanced AI systems.
• Flexible project structures, with engagements potentially extended, shortened, or concluded based on project needs and performance.
• Opportunity to collaborate remotely with experienced engineers and researchers.
• No requirement to provide confidential or proprietary information from current or former employers.
• H1-B and STEM OPT sponsorship is not supported for this opportunity.
• Opportunity to work on problems where real-world engineering judgment and hands-on hardware experience are highly valued.