Senior Firmware Engineer

<p><b>Senior Firmware Engineer</b></p> <p>Location: Bristol; Hybrid</p> <p>Join our client, Smartbox, as a Senior Firmware Engineer!</p> <p>Are you a passionate Firmware Engineer wanting to make a real impact by giving a voice to those without speech? Smartbox is looking for a dedicated individual to help improve the lives of people with disabilities.</p> <p><b>Your Impact</b></p> <p>As our client&rsquo;s Senior Firmware Engineer, you will:</p> <ul> <li>Technical Project Delivery: Deliver multi disciplinary projects, meeting scope, time, budget and quality requirements, and coordinating others as needed.</li> <li>Firmware Architecture and Lifecycle: Develop reliable, portable firmware with a long-life cycle.</li> <li>Firmware Development: Design, develop and maintain embedded firmware in C for Zephyr RTOS and Embedded Linux, including board bring up, drivers and HALs.</li> <li>Code Quality and Standards: Set and uphold coding, documentation and review standards, ensuring best practices in architecture, modularity, fault tolerance and testability.</li> <li>Test strategy and Automation: Apply strong automated testing practices following the Test Pyramid, including unit, component, contract and hardware in the loop tests, with CI automation to prevent regressions.</li> <li>Test Software and Tooling: Build and maintain automated test harnesses, GUIs and utility tools (e.g. Python, C#) to support development, validation and manufacturing.</li> <li>Libraries and Developer Experience: Create libraries and demo applications in C compatible languages (C#, C++) to support subsystem validation and cross team integration.</li> <li>Verification and Validation: EAD verification through lab testing, user trials and real world use, ensuring documentation supports regulatory compliance.</li> <li>Quality Assurance: Analyse and resolve quality issues promptly, feeding insights back into designs and processes to drive continuous improvement.</li> <li>Technical Strategy: Contribute to strategy for reliable, mission critical firmware, clearly communicating trade offs and enabling strong decision making.</li> <li>Mentoring and Leadership: Mentor Engineers, provide coaching and support, and help foster a positive, collaborative team culture.</li> </ul> <p><b>Essential Qualifications / Skills / Experience:</b></p> <ul> <li>Degree or equivalent experience in an engineering subject (Electronics, Computer Science, Software), Physics, Mathematics, or another scientific subject.</li> <li>8+ years of experience in embedded software development in C.</li> <li>A strong knowledge of Computer Science fundamentals in data structures, algorithm design, problem-solving, and complexity analysis.</li> <li>A strong grounding in embedded software architecture, with a focus on maintainability, modularity, fault-tolerance and testability.</li> <li>Confident and experienced with automated testing, including unit, integration and system tests, mocking and automation frameworks.</li> <li>A strong understanding of API design and the creation of clear, stable abstractions for hardware / firmware interaction.</li> <li>Skilled at debugging in constrained environments and using hardware / software debugging tools.</li> <li>A proven track record of innovation and quality software development throughout the entire software product lifecycle.</li> <li>Ability to solve complex technical problems in elegant and maintainable ways, demonstrating systems thinking across hardware, firmware and application layers.</li> <li>Experience with embedded platforms (for example: Embedded Linux, Arduino, STM32, Nordic, Zephyr RTOS).</li> <li>A passion and drive for excellence in software craftsmanship.</li> <li>Linux, Bash / shell, CI (Continuous integration) experience.</li> <li>Ability to read electronics schematics and collaborate effectively with Hardware Engineers during bring-up and debugging.</li> <li>Technical leadership through influence &#8211; able to guide architecture and standards, mentor others, and improve team-wide practices.</li> <li>Practical, proactive mindset &#8211; comfortable taking initiative and working through ambiguity in a fast-moving team.</li> <li>Proven experience in people or team management, with the ability to lead, motivate, and develop others.</li> <li>Strong communication and interpersonal skills, with the ability to build positive working relationships at all levels.</li> <li>Proven ability to foster high performing, engaged, and collaborative teams.&nbsp;</li> </ul> <p><b>About Smartbox</b></p> <p>Smartbox is a leader in assistive communication technology, with products used globally by people with diverse needs. Their values, passionate, caring, empowering, achieving together and enabling change, guide everything they do.</p> <p><b>Their Inclusive Culture</b></p> <p>They believe in giving everyone a voice. Joining Smartbox means joining a diverse, collaborative team and supporting a community that relies on their technology.</p> <p><b>Their Commitment to Sustainability</b></p> <p>They prioritise sustainability, aiming to reduce their environmental impact. By joining them, you&rsquo;ll help support a more inclusive and sustainable future.</p> <p><b>Their D&amp;I Commitments</b></p> <ul> <li>They are a Disability Confident Employer and a Founding Partner of Purple Tuesday.</li> <li>Their recruitment practices are inclusive and barrier free, with adjustments available throughout the process and your career.</li> <li>They believe in adding to their culture. Their diverse team shapes products that reflect their users.</li> </ul> <p><b>Rewards and Benefits</b></p> <p>Explore competitive salary, private medical insurance, hybrid working, wellness benefits and paid volunteering days.</p> <p><b>Agencies</b></p> <p>Please respect that at this current time, our client wishes to recruit directly and are not seeking agency support.</p>