Senior Firmware Engineer

About Us

Saildrone is a defense company delivering maritime intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance products to military, homeland security, and commercial customers. Saildrone unmanned surface vehicles (USVs) are extreme-endurance platforms equipped with advanced sensors and proprietary AI to provide persistent insights above and below the sea surface. Insights that support border security, law enforcement, undersea infrastructure protection, hydrography, and naval power applications. With more than 2,000,000 nautical miles sailed and 50,000 days at sea, Saildrone USVs are trusted by governments across the planet and set the standard for cost-efficient maritime intelligence in the world's harshest environments.

We are based in Alameda, CA, with offices in Washington DC and St. Petersburg, FL, and operate missions worldwide. This is an exciting opportunity with a fast-growing team at the cutting-edge intersection of big data services, autonomy, and AI. You will be part of a high-performing, multidisciplinary team delivering data, intelligence, and firepower for strategic superiority.

The Role

We are seeking a firmware engineer to write processor support and application software for embedded devices. You will add new features to existing hardware and bring up new hardware, working closely with the hardware design engineers. Your customers will primarily be vehicle software engineers and vehicle operators. There is an existing codebase of chip support infrastructure that we are planning to deprecate, so this is a good time to join to have a lot of impact on a brand-new distributed system design. Our embedded software is written in C and C++, and it communicates over many types of channels using a wide array of protocols. This is a fairly hands-on position; you will be expected to handle electronics and its supporting equipment as you do bring-up and integration, as well as leverage basic skills with oscilloscopes and logic analyzers.

What you'll do

• Receive brand-new hardware and write the firmware to bring it to life.
• Add new capabilities to and fix bugs impacting existing hardware.
• Design and develop offboard software infrastructure for deploying and testing hardware.
• Design and develop onboard software architecture and infrastructure and apply it to multiple instances of hardware.
• Support, manage, and enhance firmware on various 3rd party devices
  
  

Required skills and experience

• 5-8 years of experience in firmware
• Understanding of how to set up and debug toolchains, how to manage memory and storage in constrained environments, and bare-metal boot sequences
• Operational skill in C, C++, and Python
• Familiar with a variety of serial hardware interfaces (UART, SPI, I2C, etc.)
• Knowledge of software processes to produce sustainable and maintainable code
• Good verbal and written communication skills
• Hobbyist-level electrical engineering test equipment operational skill
• BS in engineering (or equivalent experience)
  
  

Desired skills and experience

• Experience with Simulink/MatLab and control logic
• Experience with firmware for control of diesel engines
• Familiar with a low level RTOS such as FreeRTOS
• Familiar with CAN protocols
• Experience with device driver or kernel development
• A basic understanding of schematics and how they relate to firmware implementations
  
  

Physical Requirements

• Work is performed on a computer and requires ability to operate a keyboard and other peripheral devices. Handling of electronics and other supporting equipment.
  
  

Location: This position is hybrid in Alameda, CA (3 days onsite minimum). Our waterfront office offers beautiful views of San Francisco Bay in always sunny Alameda.

Benefits:

• Paid time off, including vacation, bereavement, jury duty, sick time and parental leave
• Comprehensive and competitive medical, dental and vision plans, and HSA with employer matching.
• Company sponsored life insurance
• Stock Options
• Annual stipend for continued learning and development
• Quarterly company BBQs at our Alameda HQ (bring your friends and family!)
• Free Bay Area Public Transportation via AlamedaTMA with the BayPass Clipper Card
• Plenty of snacks in our 3 office locations
• Dog-friendly work environment

Catch up on the latest news about us:

The British Engineer Behind the US Navy’s High-tech Ocean Drones – The Times of London

Denmark to Field Unmanned Vessels for Monitoring Busy Shipping Routes – Defense News

Counter-drug Sea Drones Utilized by Navy as Trump Ramps Up Military Resources at the Border

Saildrone, Palantir Partner to Use AI to Streamline USV Manufacturing, Operations – Breaking Defense

An Underwater Mountain was Newly Discovered off California Coast – San Francisco Chronicle

USVs Could Deter IUU Fishing – USNI Proceedings

TIME 100 Most Influential Companies 2024: Saildrone

Saildrone Featured Videos Playlist

Individual compensation packages are based on geographic location, scope of the role, relevant experience, and the ability to deal with complexity and problem solve within our organization, among other factors.

All employees are required to provide proof of authorization to work in the U.S. within their first 3 days of work. Please note that the Company does not sponsor employees for work visas or permanent resident cards to work in the U.S. If you need sponsorship for a work visa or green card, you will not be qualified for employment with Saildrone.

We do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, color, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, age, marital status, veteran status, or disability status.

Any unsolicited resumes/candidate profiles submitted through our website or to personal email accounts of employees of Saildrone are considered property of Saildrone and are not subject to payment of agency fees.

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