Principal Firmware Engineer

Principal Firmware Engineer

San Francisco, CA

About Fellow

We believe that the act of making should be meaningful and fulfilling, done with intention and precision. Fellow makes beautifully functional tools for any kitchen, designed in San Francisco and used around the world. When the simple motions of life become small moments of joy, that's Everyday Magic.™

We're looking for a Principal Firmware Engineer to serve as a hands-on technical leader for Fellow's connected products. You will define and evolve firmware and system architecture, develop production embedded software, and ensure reliable integration across hardware, device UX, connectivity, mobile applications, and cloud services.

This role is based in our office in San Francisco, CA and is required to have an in office presence.

Who You Are

Fellow is looking for a Principal Firmware Engineer to serve as a hands-on technical leader for our connected products, defining firmware and system architecture from prototype through production. A successful candidate will possess expert-level embedded engineering fundamentals paired with hands-on experience owning production firmware end to end — from architecture and development through OTA delivery and field reliability. This is a rare opportunity to own the full firmware and connected-systems stack for physical products used in kitchens around the world.

You will be responsible for the development, review, and debugging of production embedded software, and will serve as the connective tissue between our hardware, device UX, wireless connectivity, mobile applications, and cloud services. You bring strong technical judgment, a high engineering bar, and the operational instincts to ship reliable, secure systems. We are looking for someone who can drive technical decisions independently while remaining agile and pragmatic. You'll champion AI-assisted engineering tools and new ways of working to drive the effectiveness and efficiency of our engineering team.

This is a hands-on technical role. You'll set the architectural direction for our firmware and connected-systems stack, and you'll also roll up your sleeves to build, ship, and debug it yourself.

What You'll Do

• Architecture & Technical Direction: Own firmware and connected-system architecture across Fellow's products; define clear interfaces, engineering standards, technical roadmaps, and pragmatic tradeoffs.
• Hands-on Firmware Development: Design, implement, review, and debug production embedded software in C/C++ on RTOS-based systems, with close attention to memory, concurrency, performance, reliability, and maintainability.
• Connected-Product Integration: Lead integration across electronics, device UX, wireless connectivity, internal communication layers, mobile applications, MQTT services, REST API, and cloud backends.
• Release & OTA Ownership: Lead OTA architecture, support staged rollouts, rollback planning, validation criteria, and communication of release risks and outcomes.
• Reliability & Incident Leadership: Diagnose complex field and production issues using logs, telemetry, analytics, lab reproduction, and hardware measurements; coordinate cross-functional response through resolution.
• Safety, Security & Compliance: Identify and mitigate product-safety, reliability, cybersecurity, and certification risks; help maintain secure-update, vulnerability-management, and software-lifecycle compliance practices.
• Product-Lifecycle Stewardship: Support factory validation, supplier integration, production debugging, legacy products, field service, and long-term maintenance of shipped devices.
• Technical Leadership & Collaboration: Lead design and code reviews and partner with hardware, backend, mobile, product, QA, operations, customer experience, and external suppliers.
• Mentorship & Knowledge Transfer: Mentor engineers, improve development and release processes, maintain decision and system documentation, and use AI-assisted engineering tools where they improve quality or speed.

Qualifications

• 8+ years of embedded or firmware engineering experience, including ownership of system architecture or technical leadership for production products.
• Expert-level C/C++ development and strong command of RTOS concepts, embedded architecture, memory management, concurrency, interfaces, and performance optimization.
• Experience delivering connected devices from prototype through manufacturing, release, field operation, incident response, and long-term maintenance.
• Demonstrated ownership of firmware releases, OTA delivery, validation strategy, and cross-system debugging using real hardware, logs, telemetry, and test data.
• Ability to reason about electrical, thermal, control, reliability, safety, and cybersecurity risks and turn that analysis into practical engineering decisions.
• Autonomy of decision making and execution with supporting evidence.
• Strong written and verbal communication with the ability to align hardware, firmware, backend, mobile, product, QA, operations, and supplier teams.
• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, or a related field, or equivalent practical experience.

Preferred Qualifications:

• Experience with MQTT, REST, Wi-Fi, BLE, or comparable IoT protocols and device-to-cloud architectures.
• Experience designing robust OTA systems, including partitioning, rollback, staged deployment, fleet diagnostics, and release observability.
• Experience with LVGL or comparable embedded UX frameworks and with communication layers between UX, control, and connectivity subsystems.
• Experience integrating embedded products with AWS or comparable cloud services and mobile applications.
• Experience with device analytics, observability, field diagnostics, reliability monitoring, and data-informed release decisions.
• Experience with PID or other control systems, thermal systems, appliance electronics, power electronics, or sensor integration.
• Experience with factory validation, supplier collaboration, certification testing, production debugging, and legacy-device support.
• Familiarity with RED, EN 18031, the Cyber Resilience Act, secure software updates, vulnerability management, software bills of materials, or related connected-product compliance practices.
• Experience applying AI-assisted tools to coding, review, analysis, documentation, or test workflows while maintaining engineering rigor.

Why You'll Love This Role

• Creative, fast-moving environment where ideas turn into action.
• Competitive compensation including employee equity plan
• Generous paid time off plan
• 401k with company contribution after 6 months of employment
• Medical/dental/vision insurance
• Better Yourself Wellness credit & Better Your Community donation matching
• Monthly Fitness Stipend
• Summer Fridays
• Paid Parental Leave
• Generous discount on Fellow products
• Best coffee anywhere

The salary range for this position is $225,000 - $250,000 plus bonus & equity. We intentionally publish salary ranges to promote transparency and set clear expectations. Final compensation is determined based on a number of factors, including relevant experience, skills, expertise, scope of previous work, demonstrated impact, and internal equity. As a result, not every candidate will be hired at the top of the range.

Our highest goal at Fellow is creating a safe, inclusive, and rewarding environment where everyone can bring their whole selves to work and thrive. We are committed to building diverse teams and strongly encourage people from underrepresented groups, including but not limited to women, people of color, LGBTQIA+ individuals, people with disabilities, members of ethnic minorities, foreign-born residents, and veterans to apply.

Fellow is an equal opportunity employer. Applicants will not be discriminated against because of race, color, creed, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, age, religion, national origin, citizenship status, disability, ancestry, marital status, veteran status, medical condition or any protected category prohibited by local, state or federal laws.