Senior Embedded Software Engineer

Job Title:

Senior Embedded Software Engineer

Location:

Long Beach, CA (100% On-Site)

Compensation:

$140,000 – $220,000 Base + Generous Early-Stage Equity

About the Company

We are partnering with a high-growth, venture-backed defense technology startup developing next-generation autonomous maritime and underwater platforms for critical national security missions. Backed by top-tier venture capital firms and backed by strong defense demand, they are rapidly scaling their hardware and software teams to build mission-critical systems from the ground up.

This is a true 0-to-1 engineering environment. Rather than maintaining legacy codebases, you will work directly with early hardware, complex constraints, and modern system architectures to turn high-level concepts into flight-ready production systems.

About the Role

Our client is hiring multiple Senior Embedded Software Engineers to serve as technical owners for core sub-systems across their vehicle platform. Engineers will lead low-level architecture, software execution, and hardware bring-up in one of three key focus areas:

• Embedded Linux Platform:

  System architecture, board support packages (BSPs), custom drivers, secure boot configuration, real-time Linux tuning, and network interfaces.

• Motor Control & Actuation Firmware:

  Microcontroller firmware, closed-loop control algorithms, fault detection logic, and power stage integration.

• Battery Management Systems (BMS):

  MCU firmware stacks, cell-level monitoring, safety interlocks, state-of-charge algorithms, and thermal management logic.

Candidates apply through a central requisition, and specific sub-system ownership will be determined based on technical background during the interview process.

Key Responsibilities

• Own the full software lifecycle for your assigned sub-system, including requirements, architecture, C/C++ development, board bring-up, and field validation.

• Write highly deterministic systems code operating under strict latency, memory, and timing constraints.

• Collaborate closely with Electrical and Avionics engineers to debug hardware and software integration issues using oscilloscopes, logic analyzers, and debuggers.

• Build automated test suites, including Hardware-in-the-Loop (HIL) and Software-in-the-Loop (SIL) test setups.

• Support integration, lab testing, and field/water trials to validate platform performance in real-world environments.

• Maintain modern CI/CD pipelines, static analysis, and automated build workflows.

Basic Qualifications

• Deep practical experience in either Embedded Linux development OR bare-metal/RTOS microcontroller firmware.

• High proficiency in low-level systems programming languages (C or C++).

• Demonstrated ability to read schematics, evaluate hardware interfaces, and debug board bring-up using standard lab equipment.

• Solid understanding of low-level peripherals, concurrency, memory allocation, and real-time scheduling.

• Must be a U.S. Citizen eligible to obtain and maintain a U.S. Security Clearance.

• Ability to work 100% on-site in Long Beach, CA.

• 4+ years of relevant embedded engineering experience (technical depth and hands-on delivery matter most).

Preferred Experience

• Background in robotics, autonomous vehicles, UAVs, aerospace, defense, or complex electromechanical platforms.

• Experience taking an embedded product from blank-sheet design through hardware deployment.

• Exposure to motor drive architectures, BMS state estimation, or Linux kernel development.