Senior Principal Embedded Firmware Software Engineer - Networking PAM4 DSP/data center/ODSP/AEC/Microled/AI connectivity

About Marvell

Marvell’s semiconductor solutions are the essential building blocks of the data infrastructure that connects our world. Across enterprise, cloud and AI, and carrier architectures, our innovative technology is enabling new possibilities. 

At Marvell, you can affect the arc of individual lives, lift the trajectory of entire industries, and fuel the transformative potential of tomorrow. For those looking to make their mark on purposeful and enduring innovation, above and beyond fleeting trends, Marvell is a place to thrive, learn, and lead. 

Your Team, Your Impact

The Optical Digital Signal Processing (ODSP) PHY SW Team develops software for Marvell's DSP products used in pluggable optical modules—chips that form the backbone of the internet, moving data within and between data centers worldwide. Marvell is the market leader in direct-detect optical DSPs (100G to 1.6T), with products deployed in every major cloud data center and AI cluster. We own all SW components, including embedded FW, customer SDK, and lab scripts, and we're the go-to group for getting things done across the entire product lifecycle—from pre-silicon simulation through field deployment.

What You Can Expect

The core responsibilities for the SW team include embedded FW that runs on our RISC-V-based multi-core MCU, C SDK provided to customers, Python-based GUI for in-field debug, and test infrastructure for the above.

The SW team is a key enabler for bringing a product to production, and the role of a Principal Engineer in our team is to ensure the overall success of that product. This role combines technical leadership with project coordination responsibilities.

Technical Leadership & Development

• Lead the Architecture, Design, Development, and Testing of embedded C firmware for controlling our extremely complicated DSP HW
• Serve as the technical lead on a product, guiding SW team members (2-8 developers) through the development process
• Drive firmware development for DSP control blocks, including RX/TX signal processing, FEC, PLL/FLL, reference generation, and thermal monitoring
• Lead technical reviews of firmware architecture, API design, and system integration approaches
• Translate complex specifications from standards bodies (MSA/OIF/CMIS) or directly from customers into easy-to-digest requirements, and clear sequence diagrams to aid in development
• Take lead on difficult to debug issues, drive to root causes with HW/Systems teams, and follow up with test/validation/customer support teams

 

Project Coordination & Cross-Functional Collaboration

• Work with the cross-functional team to plan SW milestones, develop in sprints, close tickets, and roll out features for the product
• Coordinate with Marketing, AE, Test, Validation, SW_QA, and Hardware teams to align on deliverables and schedules
• Provide regular status updates on milestones, scope, dependencies, and blockers
• Manage Agile sprint planning and backlog prioritization in collaboration with stakeholders

 

Customer Engagement & Support

• Lead technical discussions with tier-1 customers on feature requirements, API specifications, and implementation
• Support customer bring-up activities and resolve field issues
• Work with AE teams to understand customer expectations and deliver critical features
• Handle customer-specific feature development such as FEC burst statistics, VDM telemetry, and CMIS compliance

 

Team Development

• Mentor engineers on embedded firmware development, debugging techniques, and best practices
• Conduct code reviews and provide technical guidance to ensure code quality and maintainability
• Foster collaboration across geographically distributed teams

What We're Looking For

Minimum Requirements:

• Experience in memory-constrained embedded C/C++ FW development
• SW Team Lead or Technical Lead experience on embedded projects
• Architecture design & development, code reviews & testing, through to customer volume production
• Understanding of embedded SoC, microcontroller architecture (RISC-V a plus), memory-mapped hardware interfaces, GPIOs, ISRs, etc.
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills in English, and able to collaborate in a large cross-functional organization
• Excellent problem-solving and customer debug skills on real hardware in the lab
• Experience with using revision control and defect tracking systems

 

Preferred but not required:

• Experience with SERDES, IM-DD/Coherent DSP, Ethernet/PCIe PHYs, and/or Optical Module SW
• Experience with