Lead Firmware Engineer - C / BareMetals / RTOS / ARM / SPI / Irvine / EV / Onsite

Irvine, CAOnsiteDirect Hire$170k - $190kOur client located in Irvine CA, is a fast growing EV/AV charging company. They are urgently Lead / Senior Firmware Engineer to join the engineering team and support the design, development, integration, and release of embedded firmware for EV charging systems and related products. This role will be responsible for developing reliable production-quality firmware, supporting new feature development, debugging complex issues from lab and field environments, and collaborating closely with hardware, software, systems, and test teams. This position requires a strong background in embedded systems, microcontroller-based firmware development, hardware interaction, and root cause analysis. The ideal candidate should be comfortable owning technical problems end to end, contributing to architecture and design discussions, and helping improve engineering quality and execution across the team.This job is onsite 5 days a week in IrvineResponsibilities: Design, develop, test, and maintain embedded firmware for charger controllers and related subsystems Develop firmware in C/C++ for microcontroller-based real-time systems Support low-level driver development and hardware interface integration, including CAN, UART, SPI, I2C, ADC, GPIO, and Ethernet Participating in board bring-up, hardware validation, and support of new hardware revisions Investigate and resolve issues identified during architecture, design, development, validation, customer escalations, and field deployments Support implementation of diagnostics, fault handling, logging, bootloader, and firmware update mechanisms Collaborate with cross-functional teams including hardware, systems, Linux, POS, cloud/backend, and test engineering Participate in design reviews, code reviews, and release readiness activities Contribute to firmware architecture, maintainability, and coding best practices Mentor junior engineers and provide technical guidance as needed Create and maintain technical documentation related to firmware design, interfaces, and troubleshooting Must Have Skills:Bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering, Computer Engineering, Computer Science, or related field 7+ years of experience in embedded firmware development Strong proficiency in C/C++ for embedded systems Experience with microcontroller-based system design and real-time embedded development Strong understanding of hardware-software interaction and low-level debugging Experience with common embedded communication protocols such as CAN, UART, SPI, I2C, and Ethernet Experience using debugging and lab tools such as IDE, JTAG, debuggers, oscilloscopes, logic analyzers, and protocol analyzers Experience with version control systems such as Git Strong analytical, troubleshooting, and problem-solving skills Effective communication skills and ability to work across teams Nice To Have Skills:Experience in EV charging, power electronics, industrial systems, automotive systems, or other embedded product environments Experience with RTOS-based embedded development Familiarity with bootloaders, OTA updates, and firmware recovery mechanisms Experience supporting products through validation, release, and field deployment Familiarity with safety, fault management, and reliability-focused firmware design Experience mentoring junior engineers or leading technical workstreams Exposure to Linux-based embedded systems and system-level integration Key CompetenciesStrong technical ownership Structured debugging and root cause analysis Cross-functional collaboration Attention to quality and reliability Strong written and verbal communication Ability to mentor and support other team members The Offer: 170-190k base salary 5-8% bonus 401k full benefits - Health , medical , dental 2 weeks off over christmas and new years Paid 10 PTO