Job Description
Job Description
Work Model: Fully onsite (daily in-office presence required)
Location Preference: West Michigan area preferred (relocation available for strong candidates; local candidates strongly preferred)
Employment Type: Full-time, direct hire
Minimum Experience: 6+ years embedded software/firmware development experience
Education Requirement: Bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, Computer Science, or related field
Work Authorization: Must be authorized to work in the U.S. without sponsorship, or eligible candidates may be considered for sponsorship in exceptional cases
Role Summary
A client in the West Michigan area is seeking a Lead Firmware Engineer to serve as a hands-on technical leader responsible for developing and delivering embedded software for complex hardware-integrated products.
This role combines deep embedded engineering expertise with technical leadership responsibilities, including mentoring a small engineering team of 4–5 engineers. The position is a “player-coach” role, requiring active involvement in coding, debugging, and system design while also guiding team execution and engineering practices.
The engineer will collaborate closely with hardware, product, and cross-functional engineering teams to design, implement, test, and deliver embedded solutions across the full product lifecycle.
This is a fully onsite role requiring daily in-office presence, with relocation support available for qualified candidates.
Key Responsibilities
- Design, develop, and maintain embedded software and firmware for hardware-integrated systems
- Lead and mentor a team of 4–5 engineers, providing technical guidance and code-level support
- Actively contribute to hands-on development, debugging, and system troubleshooting
- Develop software in C (primary) and C++ (preferred) for embedded systems
- Work closely with hardware teams to integrate software with sensors, cameras, processors, and other hardware components
- Develop and support systems running on Real-Time Operating Systems (RTOS) and/or embedded Linux
- Participate in full software development lifecycle activities, from requirements gathering through validation and release
- Ensure software quality through testing, debugging, and performance optimization
- Collaborate with cross-functional teams including hardware, product, and manufacturing engineering
- Use tools such as Git, Bitbucket, Jenkins, JIRA, or Azure DevOps for development and workflow management
- Contribute to system architecture discussions and technical decision-making
- Support development of features across multimedia, camera systems, wireless (Wi-Fi/BLE), or similar embedded domains where applicable
- Drive engineering best practices and continuous improvement across the team
Required Qualifications
- Bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, Computer Science, or related field
- 6+ years of experience in embedded software or firmware development
- Strong proficiency in C programming (required); C++ experience preferred
- Experience developing software that interfaces directly with hardware components
- Strong experience with embedded systems and hardware/software integration
- Experience with Real-Time Operating Systems (RTOS) and/or embedded Linux
- Hands-on experience with debugging, testing, and full product lifecycle development
- Experience working with hardware components such as sensors, cameras, processors, or similar systems
- Familiarity with development tools such as Git, Bitbucket, Jenkins, JIRA, or Azure DevOps
- Experience mentoring or informally leading engineers
- Strong communication and collaboration skills across engineering teams
- Ability to balance hands-on technical work with team leadership responsibilities
Leadership Responsibilities
- Lead and mentor a team of 4–5 embedded engineers
- Provide technical coaching and code-level guidance
- Support career development and performance growth of team members
- Foster collaboration and accountability within the engineering team
- Act as a technical escalation point for complex engineering challenges
- Help define engineering standards and development practices
- Balance 50–60% hands-on engineering with 40–50% leadership responsibilities
Preferred Qualifications
- Experience in industries such as automotive, consumer electronics, medical devices, aerospace, industrial automation, robotics, or IoT
- Automotive embedded systems experience (ADAS, ECUs, sensors) is a plus
- Experience with multimedia systems, image processing, or wireless technologies (Wi-Fi/BLE)
- Experience working in highly hardware-integrated product environments
Compensation & Work Model
- Full-time direct hire position
- Fully onsite role (daily in-office presence required)
- Relocation assistance available for qualified candidates
- Visa sponsorship may be considered for exceptional candidates
- Target commute: within ~30–40 minutes of West Michigan site
- Must be legally authorized to work in the U.S. (standard requirement; sponsorship evaluated case-by-case)
- Company is actively hiring and seeking to fill the role quickly