Senior Firmware Engineer (Raleigh-Durham-Chapel Hill Area)

Senior Firmware Engineer

Our IoT device consulting firm client in Morrisville, NC (RTP) is seeking a Senior Firmware Engineer on a contract basis to design, develop, and debug embedded C firmware for microcontroller-based IoT, RF, and embedded products, working alongside the in-house firmware and hardware teams. The Senior Firmware Engineer consultant should be able to step into client projects quickly and contribute with minimal ramp-up. This role is hands-on, bare-metal and RTOS firmware on microcontrollers. It is not application, web, or cloud software development.

This is a 6-month W2 contract engagement with an anticipated 20–40 hours per week during EST business hours M-F. Pay rate is $60.00 - $66.00/hr. depending on experience and credentials. Hours will vary with project load. Engagements may be extended based on project needs, and contractors who are a strong fit may be considered for future full-time opportunities as they arise.

The ideal candidate will be local to the Raleigh metro area and come onsite several times per week, but remote flexibility may be available to candidates who can come onsite in RTP monthly. No visa support, subcontracting arrangements, or relocation assistance is available for this consulting engagement.

Responsibilities of the Senior Firmware Engineer:

Firmware Development (Primary)

• Design, implement, and debug embedded C firmware for client projects on RTOS-based microcontroller platforms, primarily Zephyr RTOS.

• Develop and maintain peripheral drivers (I2C, SPI, UART, ADC, PWM, GPIO, timers, DMA) from hardware datasheets and reference manuals.

• Bring up new custom hardware, including board definitions, device tree and Kconfig configuration, and early hardware/firmware debug.

• Implement and integrate wireless connectivity (BLE, Wi-Fi, LTE-M/NB-IoT, LoRa/LoRaWAN) as projects require.

• Develop low-power firmware for battery-powered IoT devices (sleep modes, power gating, current profiling).

• Work across multiple microcontroller families, primarily ST (STM32) and Nordic (nRF52/nRF53/nRF54/nRF91), with exposure to TI, Renesas, NXP, Espressif, and others.

Client & Project Delivery

• Prepare task and project work estimates for new and existing business to inform statements of work.

• Interface directly with clients as needed to clarify requirements, review technical approaches, and report on deliverables.

• Report progress, risks, and hours to Device Solutions engagement contacts regularly.

• Participate in code and design reviews; deliver firmware that meets Device Solutions coding standards and project requirements.

• Commit work to the company's GitHub repositories using established branching and pull request workflows.

• Collaborate with hardware engineers during board bring-up and debug using oscilloscopes, logic analyzers, and debug probes.

• Document designs, interfaces, and test results to support clean handoff to internal and client teams.

Required Qualifications of the Senior Firmware Engineer:

• Bachelor of Science in Computer Engineering, Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, or related field, OR equivalent professional experience demonstrated through work history and examples of delivered firmware projects.

• 10+ years of professional embedded C development for microcontrollers.

• 5+ years of hands-on experience developing with a real-time operating system (Zephyr, FreeRTOS, ThreadX/Azure RTOS, or similar), including threading, synchronization, interrupt handling, and memory-constrained design.

• Hands-on experience with ST STM32 and/or Nordic nRF microcontrollers and their SDKs/toolchains (e.g., STM32Cube, nRF Connect SDK).

• Ability to read schematics, hardware datasheets, and reference manuals, and implement firmware drivers from them.

• Proficiency with embedded debugging tools: J-Link/ST-Link debug probes, multimeters, oscilloscopes, and logic analyzers.

• Experience with version control using Git, including branching strategies and pull request workflows.

• Demonstrated ability to come up to speed quickly on unfamiliar codebases and microcontroller families.

• Strong written and verbal communication skills necessary to interact with project managers and clients.

• Ability to prepare credible task-level work estimates.

Preferred Qualifications of the Senior Firmware Engineer:

• 5+ years of hands-on Zephyr RTOS experience, including custom board support, devicetree, Kconfig, west, and driver development.

• Experience with additional microcontroller families: TI (MSP430, CC13xx/CC26xx), Renesas (RA/RX), NXP (i.MX RT, LPC, Kinetis), Espressif (ESP32/ESP-IDF).

• Experience developing wireless products (BLE, Wi-Fi, cellular LTE-M/NB-IoT, LoRa/LoRaWAN).

• Experience with bootloaders, DFU/FOTA, and secure boot (e.g., MCUboot, signed updates).

• Experience with Yocto/embedded Linux.

• Prior consulting or contract engineering experience supporting multiple concurrent clients.

• Python or other scripting languages for test, tooling, or automation.

• Familiarity with AI-assisted development tools such as Claude Code.

• Exposure to regulated-industry development (e.g., medical IEC 62304, industrial standards).

Please send a resume in MS Word to View email address on apply.placed-app.com for review.

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