Lead Embedded Firmware Engineer

This position is listed on behalf of a partner company, which manages all applications and next steps. Our partner is looking for a Lead Embedded Firmware Engineer based in Canada.

Join a collaborative, fully remote engineering team developing innovative connected devices for commercial, industrial, and consumer applications. In this senior technical leadership role, you will own the firmware lifecycle from hardware bring-up and architecture through production deployment and ongoing maintenance. You will work extensively with ESP
32 wireless microcontrollers, embedded C/C++, and IoT connectivity to build reliable, secure, production-ready solutions. Partnering with hardware engineers, manufacturers, clients, and cross-functional teams, you will guide critical technical decisions and resolve complex hardware, firmware, and connectivity challenges. You will also mentor engineers, establish development standards, and drive improvements in testing, automation, and release processes. This opportunity offers meaningful technical ownership, focused project work, and the chance to bring sophisticated connected products from concept to mass production.

Accountabilities

Own firmware architecture, technical direction, and key engineering decisions, balancing performance, reliability, security, and maintainability.

Serve as the primary firmware technical contact for clients, translating product requirements into technical specifications, project plans, estimates, and actionable development priorities.

Lead firmware project planning, identify technical risks and dependencies early, and coordinate delivery across engineering and stakeholder teams.

Establish and maintain firmware coding standards, code review practices, testing strategies, release processes, and technical documentation.

Mentor and support engineers, promote knowledge sharing, and guide the team through complex technical challenges.

Design, develop, and maintain production-grade embedded firmware in C/C++ for ESP
32-based connected devices using ESP-IDF and RTOS-based development approaches.

Conduct hardware bring-up, review schematics, integrate low-level drivers, and develop interfaces for sensors, actuators, LEDs, and other peripherals using I2C, SPI, UART, ADC, and GPIO.

Implement Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) provisioning, Wi-Fi connectivity, and secure device-to-cloud communication using AWS IoT Core, MQTT over TLS, and certificate-based authentication.

Design, maintain, and optimize over-the-air (OTA) firmware update mechanisms, including secure updates, rollback capabilities, and staged deployment strategies.

Diagnose and resolve complex issues across firmware, hardware, wireless protocols, and cloud services using tools such as JTAG/SWD debuggers, logic analyzers, and protocol sniffers.

Collaborate with hardware, mobile, and backend teams to define device data models, telemetry requirements, and device-to-cloud interfaces.

Work with contract manufacturers to support factory flashing, device provisioning, production readiness, and hardware validation throughout EVT, DVT, and PVT stages.

Support product certification activities, including FCC compliance, and ensure firmware meets applicable production and security requirements.

Improve firmware CI/CD pipelines, automated testing frameworks, development tooling, and device automation to increase delivery quality and efficiency.

Requirements

At least 8 years of professional embedded software or firmware engineering experience using C/C++, including experience delivering production-quality systems.

At least 2 years in a technical leadership role, with responsibility for firmware architecture, engineering standards, code reviews, and mentoring other developers.

Significant hands-on experience…