Embedded Firmware Engineer, Hardware Bring-up & Controls

Job Title

Embedded Firmware Engineer, Hardware Bring-up & Controls

Role Summary

Develop and own embedded firmware, drivers, and control software for new hardware boards. Split time between hands-on board bring-up in the lab and implementing real-time control loops that run on the devices.

Work as part of a small, cross-functional engineering team based in Midtown Manhattan focused on silicon photonics for LiDAR and optical switching systems.

Experience Level

Entry-level / Early career. The posting requests 2+ years of professional embedded software experience.

Responsibilities

Main responsibilities include firmware development, hardware bring-up, and proving control loops on physical systems.

• Implement real-time control algorithms in embedded C++: discretization, latency budgeting, anti-windup, saturation handling, and numerical robustness.
• Write drivers and firmware architecture for new boards and keep them reusable across revisions.
• Bring up new boards: read schematics and datasheets, probe signals, debug SPI/I2C/UART and custom interfaces, and perform small SMT reworks as needed.
• Build test setups and Python-based analysis to validate drivers and control loops on hardware, from single PIDs to multi-element tuning.
• Feed bring-up findings back to hardware designers to improve future board revisions.
• Collaborate closely with hardware, optics, signal processing, and firmware engineers to deliver production-ready systems.

Requirements

Must-have technical skills and experience for day-one impact.

• 2+ years professional embedded software experience (see Experience Level).
• Proficiency in C or C++ on microcontrollers (ARM Cortex-M, STM32 or similar), bare-metal or RTOS environments.
• Practical control theory experience: PID, loop shaping, stability margins, state-space concepts and cost trade-offs for firmware implementation.
• Board bring-up experience from the firmware perspective: reading schematics and datasheets, using scopes and logic analyzers, debugging serial buses and custom interfaces.
• Python for test automation and data analysis.

Nice to have:

• Measuring plant response and system identification on hardware; MIMO, observers, PLLs, or online optimization techniques.
• Lab automation experience (SCPI/VISA scripting) and debugging across FPGA/ASIC boundaries.
• Experience with thermal, motor/actuator, or optical systems.

Education Requirements

BS in computer engineering, computer science, or a related technical field is stated in the posting. The role specifies 2+ years of embedded software experience.

About the Company

Company: Voyant Photonics

Headquarters: New York, NY, USA

New York City–based company developing compact silicon photonic LiDAR sensors that measure range, velocity, and reflectivity with high accuracy. Uses fingertip-scale silicon photonic chips to produce affordable, high-performance sensors for robotics, autonomous vehicles, drones, industrial automation, and other sensing applications.