Firmware Engineer II (Immediate Joiner)

Position Summary

Develop embedded firmware for digital hearing aids, focusing on real-time audio signal processing, feature integration, and production-quality software. Collaborate with algorithm, hardware, systems, and verification engineers to transform prototype DSP algorithms into optimized, maintainable firmware for commercial hearing aid products.

Job Responsibilities

Embedded Firmware Development

Design, develop, and maintain embedded firmware supporting Starkey hearing aid products:

1. Design, develop, maintain, and debug embedded firmware written in Assembly and C.

2. Design reusable firmware APIs, software modules, and framework components.

3. Develop firmware using RTOS, interrupt-driven architectures, and embedded software best practices.

4. Optimize firmware for execution time, memory footprint, power consumption, and maintainability.

5. Debug firmware using JTAG, trace tools, oscilloscopes, logic analyzers, Audacity, and embedded debugging tools.

6. Participate in software architecture, design reviews, and code reviews.

7. Contribute to firmware architecture, coding standards, and software quality improvements.

Audio Feature Development & DSP Integration

Develop and integrate firmware supporting advanced hearing aid audio processing features:

1. Integrate DSP algorithms into production-quality firmware.

2. Develop firmware supporting hearing aid audio features including speech enhancement, noise reduction, echo cancellation, streaming, and signal routing.

3. Collaborate with DSP algorithm engineers to transform research prototypes into commercial products.

4. Optimize firmware to achieve real-time audio performance while meeting latency, memory, and power requirements.

5. Support tuning and optimization of audio processing features.

6. Contribute to audio processing architecture and feature development.

Software Quality & Product Support

Ensure firmware quality throughout the complete product lifecycle:

1. Develop unit tests to verify firmware functionality where appropriate.

2. Support system integration, verification, and product validation activities.

3. Investigate customer issues, field defects, and manufacturing issues.

4. Perform root cause analysis using firmware logs, debug reports, and engineering tools.

5. Implement corrective actions and verify software fixes.

6. Support product releases by resolving firmware issues and improving software reliability.

7. Maintain production-quality firmware throughout the product lifecycle.

Must-Have Technical Skills

Embedded Systems

1. 5 to 10 years developing embedded firmware for production products.

2. Experience with ARM Cortex-M or equivalent microcontrollers.

3. Experience with interrupt-driven systems.

4. Experience with RTOS (FreeRTOS, ThreadX, Zephyr, RTX, or equivalent).

5. Embedded peripheral interfaces (SPI, I2C, UART, GPIO, DMA, ADC, Timers).

Programming

1. Expert-level Embedded C.

2. Working knowledge of Assembly Language for embedded microcontrollers or DSPs.

3. Proficiency in Python for engineering productivity, scripting, automation, log analysis, and data processing.

4. Strong understanding of:

• Pointers
• Memory layout
• Data structures
• Bit manipulation
• Fixed-point arithmetic

5. Experience developing reusable firmware APIs

6. Experience with modular software architecture

Debugging

Hands-on experience using one or more of:

1. JTAG

2. Segger J-Link

3. Lauterbach

4. GDB

5. Embedded IDE debuggers

Audio Signal Processing

Candidates should have hands-on experience in at least three of the following:

1. Audio firmware

2. Audio DSP

3. Speech processing

4. Consumer audio products

5. Hearing devices

6. Bluetooth audio

7. Audio codecs

DSP Fundamentals

1. Strong understanding of at least three of the following:

2. FIR filters, IIR filters, Adaptive filters

3. FFT

4. Beamforming

5. Echo cancellation

6. Noise suppression

7. Active Noise Cancellation

8. Dynamic Range Compression

Nice-to-Have Technical Skills

Artificial Intelligence & Machine Learning

1. Experience implementing or integrating Deep Neural Network (DNN) inference on embedded devices.

2. Understanding of neural network fundamentals, including convolutional neural networks (CNN), recurrent neural networks (RNN), transformers, or equivalent architectures.

3. Experience optimizing neural network inference for memory, latency, and power consumption.

4. Familiarity with TensorFlow Lite, TensorFlow Lite Micro, ONNX Runtime, Qualcomm AI Engine, CMSIS-NN, or equivalent inference frameworks.

5. Experience profiling and optimizing AI workloads on ARM Cortex-M, DSP, or embedded accelerators.

Education

Required

Bachelor's degree in Electronics & Communication Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, or equivalent from a Tier 1 or Tier 2 or well recognized university.

Preferred

1. Master's degree in Electronics & Communication Engineering or equivalent, focusing on signal processing, or equivalent.

2. PhD in Signal Processing or equivalent.

3. Certifications: Embedded Systems Certification or equivalent.

Embedded Systems Certifications:

1. Vector India Embedded Systems Certification

2. Emertxe Embedded Systems Certification

3. C-DAC PG Certificate in Embedded Systems Design

Professional Experience

Required

1. Minimum 5 years of embedded firmware development for commercial products.

2. Minimum 3 years of Embedded C development.

3. Experience developing firmware for real-time embedded systems.

4. Experience working on audio signal processing, digital signal processing (DSP), or other real-time signal processing applications in commercial products.

5. Hands-on experience integrating, optimizing, or maintaining firmware supporting audio processing features or DSP algorithms.

6. Experience with at least one commercial product from concept through release.

7. Experience working in a structured software development environment using version control and code reviews.

Preferred

Experience developing one or more of the following products or technologies:

1. Hearing aids

2. Hearables

3. Earbuds

4. Headsets

5. Consumer audio products

6. Medical devices

7. Wireless audio products

8. Speech processing systems

9. Audio DSP firmware

10. Noise reduction, beamforming, or speech enhancement technologies

11. AI-based audio processing or embedded Deep Neural Network (DNN) inference

Desired Professional Attributes

1. Demonstrates ownership of firmware features from design through release.

2. Able to independently debug complex embedded software issues.

3. Effectively collaborates with algorithm, hardware, systems, and verification teams.

4. Writes maintainable, well-documented production-quality firmware.

5. Participates constructively in design and code reviews.

6. Work Schedule & Collaboration Expectations: This position requires approximately 34 hours of regular overlap with the U.S. Central Time Zone to support collaboration with firmware, algorithm, systems, and project teams. Working hours may be adjusted as needed to support critical project milestones and engineering discussions.