Principal Compute Firmware Engineer

Mission Summary:

The Platform Firmware and Diagnostics Software team designs and develops software for various high performance compute elements, components and sensors used on the Motional Autonomous Vehicle platform. We develop diagnostics to validate the design of the hardware as well as its reliability. The team also develops a hardware abstraction layer on which the autonomy stack and vehicle safety applications run.

The Motional Pittsburgh office is located in the new Hazelwood Green development, a culmination of the city’s goal of restoring an economic driver to the neighborhood in a thoughtful, inclusive, and sustainable way. With views along the Monongahela river, the Pittsburgh office is in the heart of this new state of the art development.  

What you'll be doing: 

• Work across engineering teams to gather and synthesize component level requirements into firmware/diagnostic implementation specifications.
• Ownership of the strategy, design, and implementation of diagnostic capabilities for various compute and control components within the autonomous vehicle architecture
• Participation in vehicle bringup and testing activities
• Champion continuous improvement efforts to drive down defects and improve quality
• Build and maintain a HIL bench for integration testing of various software/firmware components in a vehicle. This bench will also be used to reproduce, triage and drive field issues to resolution.
• Travel to data collection site/depot to triage and root cause issues that can only be reproduced in a vehicle
• Build automation to test diagnostic and firmware releases to manufacturing and other cross functional teams
• Work on boot, OS, kernel  drivers and embedded hardware drivers, on a variety of hardware architectures

What were looking for:

• BS in Computer Science or Engineering, Electrical or Electronics Engineering, or similar technical field of study or equivalent practical experience
• The ability to coach, mentor and lead other engineers
• Customer focus, strong collaboration skills, and the ability to pull engineers together across teams to accomplish objectives
• The ability to collaborate with and manage vendors to ensure quality and timely delivery
• The ability to drive and manage complex projects according to program schedules within a fast-paced, dynamic environment
• 10+ years of experience with SW/HW integration and software development on embedded systems
• C/C++ and Python development experience in a Unix/Linux environment
• Advanced knowledge of software engineering principles including requirements gathering, software design, source control management, build processes, code reviews, testing methods. 
• Solid foundational knowledge and hands-on experience using inter-system communication protocols such as I2C, UART, SPI, CAN, PICe, Ethernet
• Experience with computing architectures such as FPGAs, GPUs, MCUs, SoCs and their associated hardware computing platforms
• Experience with Polarion, JIRA, and Quality Management Systems

Bonus Points

• Experience with typical robot sensors
• Understanding of automotive software architecture
• Experience with Autosar, UDS

Why you should join us:

• This is a unique opportunity where you will be able to form the foundation for developing cutting edge software on Motional’s self driving vehicle platforms. You will deal with the latest technologies used in compute and sensor elements in a self driving vehicle.

• All the while helping to drive strong engineering practices in the embedded software space.

If you don’t meet 100% of the qualifications outlined above - that’s okay! We encourage you to apply if you think this is a role that would make you excited to come into work every day and that you can deliver the results we need.

The salary range for this role is an estimate based on a wide range of compensation factors including but not limited to specific skills, experience and expertise, role location, certifications, licenses, and business needs. The estimated compensation range listed in this job posting reflects base salary only. This role may include additional forms of compensation such as a bonus or company equity. The recruiter assigned to this role can share more information about the specific compensation and benefit details associated with this role during the hiring process. 

Candidates for certain positions are eligible to participate in Motional’s benefits program. Motional’s benefits include but are not limited to medical, dental, vision, 401k with a company match, health saving accounts, life insurance, pet insur