Senior​/Principal Embedded Firmware Engineer - Special Programs, Onsite

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Sandia National Laboratories is the nation’s premier science and engineering lab for national security and technology innovation, with teams of specialists focused on cutting-edge work in a broad array of areas. Some of the main reasons we love our jobs:

Challenging work with amazing impact that contributes to security, peace, and freedom worldwide

Extraordinary co-workers

Some of the best tools, equipment, and research facilities in the world

Career advancement and enrichment opportunities

Flexible work arrangements for many positions include 9/80 (work 80 hours every two weeks, with every other Friday off) and 4/10 (work 4 ten-hour days each week) compressed workweeks, part-time work, and telecommuting (a mix of onsite work and working from home)

Generous vacation, strong medical and other benefits, competitive 401k, learning opportunities, relocation assistance and amenities aimed at creating a solid work/life balance*

World-changing technologies. Life-changing careers. Learn more about Sandia at: http://(Use the "Apply for this Job" box below)..gov

* These benefits vary by job classification.

What Your Job Will Be Like:

We are seeking an experienced Embedded Systems Firmware Engineer to own the full product lifecycle for mission-critical defense systems from customer requirements through architecture, firmware development, hardware bring-up, qualification, and acceptance testing. The right candidate brings deep firmware skills, hands-on electronics troubleshooting, modern software engineering discipline, and ideally experience with Embedded Rust. This role supports both Special Projects and Nuclear Deterrence mission sets.

Key Responsibilities:

Engage customers and stakeholders to refine mission needs into system and firmware requirements

Lead firmware architecture and low-level driver development in C, C++, and Rust

Support board bring-up and hands-on debug: read schematics, isolate hardware design defects, and work with hardware designers on fixes

Define and execute verification plans (unit, integration, environmental, qualification, acceptance)

Apply Dev Ops-inspired practices: automated unit testing, CI workflows, containerized build/test environments

Develop reproducible, secure development workflows for restricted/classified or air-gapped networks

Produce and maintain requirements docs, interface definitions, design descriptions, test plans, and reports

Mentor junior engineers and lead technical discussions across systems, hardware, software, and test teams

What You’ll Bring

Broad technical judgment from requirements through delivered capability

Ease moving between customer discussions and hands-on debug of immature hardware

Discipline in software quality, reproducibility, and maintainability

Ability to adapt modern development methods to mission-driven, security-constrained environments

Technical leadership and mentorship in a multidisciplinary setting

Due to the nature of this work the selected applicant will need to work onsite.

Salary Range:

$117,500 - $235,700

* Salary range is estimated, and actual salary will be determined after consideration of the selected candidate's experience and qualifications, and application of any approved geographic salary differential.

Qualifications We Require:

A Bachelor's degree in a relevant discipline and five (5) years of directly relevant experience, or an equivalent combination of directly relevant education and engineering or scientific experience that demonstrates the knowledge, skills, and ability to perform independent research and development.¿

Ability to obtain a DOE Q clearance

Qualifications We Desire:

The ideal R&D S&E Computer Engineering candidate for Sandia National Laboratories will in addition possess the following:

Graduate degree in Computer Engineering or a highly related field where an independent research project was a graduation requirement (e.g., independent project, thesis, or dissertation).

Demonstrated ability to execute and deliver technical work products with application of appropriate rigor and pedigree…