Embedded Software Engineer

About Protingent: Protingent is an Award-Winning provider of top-tier Engineering and IT talent, trusted by companies at the forefront of innovation — from Software and Aerospace to AI, Clean Tech, Medical Devices, and Connected Technologies . Develop low-level embedded firmware that implements system fault tolerance, including command and telemetry handling, health monitoring, FDIR, safe-mode behavior, and autonomous recovery.

Job Title: Embedded Software Engineer

Position Description: Protingent Staffing has an exciting contract Embedded Software Engineer with our client located in Pleasanton, CA.

Job Responsibilities

• Design and implement bootloaders, BSPs, HALs, and low-level device drivers tightly coupled to custom lidar hardware.
• Bring up new ARM-based flight boards from first power-on through stable firmware operation, working directly from schematics and hardware documentation.
• Build firmware on bare-metal/RTOS architectures with deterministic timing and fault tolerance.
• Develop low-level embedded firmware that implements system fault tolerance, including command and telemetry handling, health monitoring, FDIR, safe-mode behavior, and autonomous recovery.
• Implement and validate power sequencing, reset handling, watchdogs, interrupt handling, DMA, and linker configurations.
• Develop and maintain firmware supporting power, thermal, communications, and telemetry functions.
• Support and evolve redundant communication paths (CAN/Ethernet) for coordination, monitoring, and fault tolerance.
• Debug and resolve hardware–software integration issues using JTAG/SWD, oscilloscopes, logic analyzers, and other bench tools.
• Define, document, and maintain stable firmware interfaces consumed by higher-level platform software.
• Partner with software engineers to ensure firmware behavior aligns with system-level requirements and operational constraints.
• Collaborate closely with lidar hardware, systems teams through integration testing, protoflight activities, and flight readiness reviews.
• Contribute to embedded build automation, reproducibility, and test infrastructure.

Job Qualifications

• 5+ years of hands-on embedded firmware development experience in aerospace, robotics, automotive, or other safety- or mission-critical systems environments.
• Expert-level proficiency in C/C++ for embedded systems.
• Strong experience with ARM Cortex-A architectures
• Proven experience developing bootloaders, BSPs, HALs, and hardware-facing device drivers.
• Demonstrated ability to bring up new hardware from schematics to working firmware.
• Strong understanding of power sequencing, resets, watchdogs, interrupts, DMA, and linker scripts.
• Hands-on debugging experience with JTAG/SWD, oscilloscopes, and logic analyzers.
• Experience working with embedded Linux systems (ARM platforms).
• Ability to operate independently and take full ownership in a start-up environment.

Preferred Job Qualifications

• Familiarity with lidar software architectures and fault detection, isolation, and recovery (FDIR) concepts.
• Experience with Linux/QNX/RTOS and real-time environments such as FreeRTOS, SafeRTOS or VxWorks
• Experience with radiation-tolerant or space-grade SoCs.
• Experience with Embedded System Cybersecurity: ISO 24882
• Experience with Functional Safety: ISO 26262
• Familiarity with embedded communication protocols such as CAN, RS-485, SPI, I²C, UART, SpaceWire, or CCSDS telemetry systems.
• Experience with secure boot, image signing, and in-field firmware update strategies.
• Experience with CI/CD pipelines or automated build environments for embedded systems.

Job Details:

• Job Type: Contract
• Pay Range: $70-95/hr
• Location: Pleasanton, CA (Onsite)

Benefits Package: Protingent offers competitive salaries, insurance plan options (HDHP plan or POS plan), education/certification reimbursement, pre-tax commuter benefits, Paid Time Off (PTO), and an administered 401k plan.

About Protingent: Protingent is an Award-Winning provider of top-tier Engineering and IT talent, trusted by companies at the forefront of innovation — from Software and Aerospace to AI, Clean Tech, Medical Devices, and Connected Technologies. We’re passionate about making a positive impact by connecting exceptional talent with meaningful opportunities and helping our clients build the future.