Lead Firmware Engineer

FARO is an imaging company - and an imagining  company. We envision a better, more insightful, and more powerful world realized through digital 3D means and measurement technologies. Right from the start, we have helped our customers make better decisions - faster and more accurately than anyone else in the industry.  

We work with the largest companies on the planet to provide the solutions that enable them to overcome their most pressing industry challenges. In aerospace and automotive, we work with firms like SpaceX, NASA, Tesla and Volvo among others. In the construction industry, we work with the largest builders to scan and design astonishing projects. For public safety professionals, our forensics scanning tools solve crimes and document scenes with high tech gear you probably see on CSI and in the movies! 

The Firmware Engineering area is responsible for researching, designing, implementing, maintaining and integrating embedded software that fulfils a specific function within a larger mechanical, optical and/or electronic system. Compared to generalist software development roles, firmware engineering roles put a special focus on:

• Optimizing the implementation for a specific hardware target platform, thereby minimizing system properties such as hardware costs and power usage

• Ensuring security, safety and robustness, not only of the firmware but the whole system

• Accounting for the fact the embedded software fulfils a specific function within a physical device, which is ruled by natural laws that are the focus of other engineering disciplines (electronics, mechanics, optics).

• Knowledge of and exposure to hardware design

• Making use of highly specialized tools and programming languages (e.g. using Hardware description languages such VHDL to “program” FPGAs or using OpenCL as a way to write optimal code for heterogenous SoC platforms)

• Working on widely different software abstraction levels (using signal- to application-level programming techniques) while being aware of cross-cutting aspects

ESSENTIAL FUNCTIONS:

• Support the creation of new hardware products and modules in respect to software aspects

• Evaluate and integrate new hardware components and processing platforms

• Translate product and module requirements into technical specifications and derived requirements for the firmware

• Create and maintain firmware that fulfills the requirements

• Create and maintain the software for hardware product platforms and related products

• Analyze, challenge, and refine high level requirements

• Develop and document technical concepts, specifications, and effort estimations

• Create firmware designs on a product level

• Play technical project manager role on a sub project (module) level

• Drive continuous improvement of software quality within the team

• Keep up to date with expert programming and software engineering techniques within the firmware context and spread the knowledge within the team

• Mentor other developers

• Provide suggestions for product improvements on module level

• Act as sub project lead

• Lead advanced design reviews

QUALIFICATIONS:

• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Engineering, Computer science or related engineering or scientific discipline or equivalent industry experience

• Proven technical excellence

• Specialized deep knowledge in at least two firmware domains

• Expert-level knowledge in at least one firmware domain and method

• Can efficiently work and communicate in cross-functional teams (teams containing Electronics and Software Engineers)

• Has deep applied knowledge of engineering best practices

• Has up-to-date applied knowledge of the framework and tools landscape

• Has a deep understanding of resource constraints within embedded systems and how to handle them

• Has deep understanding of all levels of the firmware stack

• Advanced understanding of computer architecture

• Ability to identify new technologies and methods

This will be a hybrid role, requiring a minimum of 3 days in the office weekly out of our Exton, Pennsylvania office.

What FARO can offer you:

FARO has excellent benefits for you and your family.  We not only care for our employees but also to their immediate family members. We believe in a balanced work-life and have developed programs and benefits plans to support that ethic, such as:

• A competitive paid time off bank and paid holidays

• Medical, dental, life and AD&D insurance plans