Senior Firmware Engineer

About Us

Saildrone is an oceanographic survey and maritime defense company creating a paradigm shift in how navies, civil governments, and commercial organizations obtain the real-time, accurate data required to monitor and protect our oceans. Saildrone’s fleet of uncrewed surface vehicles (USVs) carry purpose-built payloads supporting border protection, critical infrastructure security, hydrographic survey, offshore energy, and metocean monitoring. Powered by renewable wind and solar energy, Saildrone USVs provide long-duration operations measured in months, not days. Proprietary software applications and machine learning technology transform collected data into actionable insights and intelligence.

We are based in Alameda, CA, with offices in Washington DC and St. Petersburg, FL, and operate missions worldwide. We are backed by top-tier investors in the frontier tech and sustainability sectors, including Social Capital, Capricorn, Lux Capital, BOND Capital, and Emerson Collective.

This is an exciting opportunity with a fast-growing team at the cutting-edge intersection of big data services and autonomous hardware. You will be part of a high-performing, multidisciplinary team that delivers high impact for humanity and future generations.

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. Even our walls have good karma, our offices mix software development with a hardware production line in the former airplane hangar used to film 'The Matrix'.

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 Tiny Craft Mapping Superstorms at Sea – The New York Times
An Underwater Mountain was Newly Discovered off California Coast – San Francisco Chronicle
Hacking the Anthropocene with Survivalist Robots [VIDEO] – Freethink
An Unprecedented View Inside a Hurricane – EOS
Saildrone’s First Aluminum Surveyor Autonomous Vessel Splashes Down for Navy Testing – TechCrunch
USVs Could Deter IUU Fishing – USNI Proceedings
Saildrone Vehicles Track Whales around Offshore Wind Power – Workboat
Mullen, Former Joint Chiefs Chairman, to Lead Board for Unmanned Tech Firm Saildrone – Breaking Defense
The Navy Is Using Robot Ships to Deter Human Smuggling out of Haiti – Defense One
Saildrone's Quiet Voyage: Autonomous Vehicle Aids Great Lakes Fish Stock Study – Up North Live
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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