Senior Staff Engineer, Firmware Engineering

Job Title

Senior Staff Engineer, Firmware Engineering

Role Summary

Lead design, implementation, verification, and delivery of embedded firmware for high-speed optical components. Work cross-functionally with hardware, test, systems, and customer support to take products from inception through NPI and production.

Experience Level

Senior — expects multiple years of professional experience in embedded firmware development (typical: 5+ years).

Responsibilities

Primary responsibilities include end-to-end firmware ownership, system bring-up, and cross-team integration.

• Design, implement, test, deploy, and maintain embedded C/C++ firmware for MCU/DSP-based systems.
• Own software architecture, development, and testing for assigned blocks or products.
• Collaborate with hardware, systems, and test teams on requirements, schematics, and validation.
• Lead chip and system bring-ups; travel to global sites as required (approx. 3 weeks/year).
• Drive difficult debug efforts to root cause and work through validation and customer support.
• Optimize firmware for performance, reliability, and power consumption.
• Participate in and lead design reviews, code reviews, and debugging sessions.
• Plan milestones, work in sprints, close tickets, and execute frequent firmware releases.
• Create and maintain functional specs, design docs, test plans, and user guides.

Requirements

Must-have technical skills and experience for immediate contribution.

• Must-have: Proven experience developing memory-constrained embedded C/C++ firmware.
• Must-have: Technical ownership of embedded projects (architecture, release planning, delivery).
• Must-have: Experience with microprocessor architectures (ARM or RISC-V; RISC-V a plus).
• Must-have: Knowledge of embedded SoC/microcontroller architecture, memory-mapped interfaces, GPIO, ISRs, RTOS, queuing, and interrupt processing.
• Must-have: Embedded device driver experience for protocols such as SPI, I2C, MDIO, UART.
• Must-have: Experience writing control firmware for components like CDR, Flash/EEPROM, Laser Driver, TEC Controller.
• Must-have: Strong C and Python programming skills; working knowledge of git, Linux, makefiles, gdb, IDEs, and bash.
• Must-have: Hands-on hardware debug skills using oscilloscopes, logic analyzers, JTAG, and other diagnostics.
• Must-have: Working familiarity with hardware design schematics and strong written/verbal communication skills.
• Nice-to-have: Experience with SERDES, IM-DD/Coherent DSP, Ethernet/PCIe PHYs, or Optical Module software.
• Nice-to-have: Experience with mixed-signal control, PID/feedback loops; bare-metal or Linux kernel development.
• Nice-to-have: Familiarity with advanced compiler options, FPGA emulation/Verilog, lab equipment, and signal-processing concepts.

Education Requirements

BS or MS in Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, Software Engineering, or a related technical field. The posting specifies: BS with 5+ years of relevant embedded firmware experience, or MS with 2–3 years of relevant embedded firmware experience.

About the Company

Company: Marvell Technology

Headquarters: Santa Clara, California, United States

Marvell’s semiconductor solutions serve as essential building blocks of the data infrastructure connecting our world, driving innovation across enterprise, cloud, AI, and carrier architectures. The company focuses on creating transformative technology that shapes the future.