Lead Software Engineer

At Jabil (NYSE: JBL), we are proud to be a trusted partner for the world's top brands, offering comprehensive engineering, supply chain, and manufacturing solutions. With 60 years of experience across industries and a vast network of over 100 sites worldwide, Jabil combines global reach with local expertise to deliver both scalable and customized solutions. Our commitment extends beyond business success as we strive to build sustainable processes that minimize environmental impact and foster vibrant and diverse communities around the globe.

JOB SUMMARY

As a Lead Design Engineer (Software/Firmware – Linux + RTOS), you will technically lead a cross-functional development team to deliver high-quality embedded software solutions spanning Embedded Linux and real-time operating systems. You are accountable for meeting phase-gate technical milestones, leading technical reviews, ensuring requirements (inputs) and design outputs remain aligned and traceable, and enabling successful manufacturing builds and product launches.

ESSENTIAL DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES

• Meet the responsibilities expected of a Senior Software/Firmware Design Engineer (or Senior Design/VAVE Engineer), including hands-on design, implementation, integration, and verification activities.
• Act as a Subject Matter Expert (SME) in Embedded Linux and RTOS domains (e.g., BSP/boot chain, kernel/driver, Yocto/Buildroot, middleware, RTOS scheduling/interrupts, safety & reliability, etc.).
• Represent the design organization in technical discussions with customers and stakeholders; clearly communicate trade-offs, risk, and mitigation plans.
• Partner with Project Managers during RFQ/RFI/quotation to provide technical scope, assumptions, estimates, and risk assessment.
• Own and drive phase-gate technical deliverables; ensure design reviews are planned, executed, and closed with clear action tracking and accountability.
• Ensure specification requirements and inputs align with software architecture/design outputs; maintain traceability across requirements, design, implementation, and verification artifacts.
• Define or review system/software architecture across Linux + RTOS components (partitioning, IPC, latency/throughput trade-offs, update strategy, diagnostics, logging, security boundaries).
• Drive board bring-up and platform enablement: bootloader configuration, BSP integration, device tree, driver integration, and basic hardware-software debug.
• Lead software verification strategy (unit/integration/system/regression), including automation approaches, test coverage expectations, and release criteria.
• Drive defect triage and root-cause analysis; lead resolution of complex issues across unit/subsystem/system levels, including concurrency, timing, and memory-related defects.
• Drive delivery of a complete release/design package into PDM/PLM (as applicable), including requirements, architecture/design documents, source/version baselines, build/release notes, configuration databases, test evidence, and other required deliverables.
• Drive delivery of a complete VAVE (Value Analysis/Value Engineering) package when applicable, including detailed proposals, cost/licensing impacts, risk levels, pros/cons, benchmarks, and supporting data/models.
• Lead cross-functional collaboration with hardware, system, test, quality, regulatory, supply chain, and manufacturing teams; incorporate supplier/manufacturing feedback into implementation plans.
• Provide on-site or remote technical support for engineering prototypes, NPI builds, and production releases, including manufacturing test/diagnostics and field issue support when required.
• Promote engineering excellence: code reviews, coding standards (MISRA-C/C++ where applicable), CI/CD, static analysis, documentation quality, and continuous process improvement.
• Mentor senior and junior engineers; provide technical guidance, coaching, and review of design and test artifacts.
• Stay up to date on relevant technologies, tools, and industry standards to deliver competitive and cost-effective solutions.
• Support management in identifying internal/external resources needed to execute development and analysis activities.
• Perform other duties and responsibilities as assigned.

JOB QUALIFICATIONS

Required Technical Skills

• Strong experience delivering embedded software/firmware into production, including release management and post-release support.
• Embedded Linux: hands-on experience with Linux user space and system software; preferred experience with kernel configuration, device drivers, device tree, and build systems (Yocto/BitBake or Buildroot).
• RTOS: hands-on experience with at least one RTOS (e.g., FreeRTOS, Zephyr, ThreadX, VxWorks or equivalent), including task scheduling, interrupts/ISRs, synchronization primitives, and memory constraints.
• Solid C/C++ programming skills for embedded systems; familiarity with Python/shell scripting for tooling and automation is a plus.
• Debugging proficiency: GDB, JTAG/SWD, crash dumps, logs/trace analysis; ability to debug hardware-software interaction issues.
• Experience with requirements management and traceability concepts; familiarity with regulated development practices is a plus.
• Solid understanding of software development environments and tools (Git, build systems, CI/CD, issue tracking).
• Ability to work effectively across functions and with external customers/suppliers.

Language Skills

• Ability to read, analyze, and interpret technical procedures, professional journals, and relevant regulations/standards.
• Ability to write clear technical reports, documentation, and business correspondence.
• Ability to present technical information and respond to questions from managers, customers, and cross-functional teams.

Mathematical Skills

• Ability to work with mathematical concepts such as probability and statistics, and to apply ratios/proportions to practical engineering problems.

Reasoning Ability

• Ability to define problems, collect data, establish facts, and draw valid conclusions.
• Ability to interpret a wide variety of technical instructions in mathematical or diagram form and deal with multiple variables.
• Ability to develop models (where applicable) and implement results into software/firmware solutions.

Education & Experience Requirements

• Bachelor's degree in Engineering, Computer Science, Software Engineering, or a closely related field from an accredited four-year college or university.
• Minimum 9–10 years of related experience and/or training.
• Minimum 2 years of experience at a Senior Engineer level (Senior Software/Firmware Design Engineer or equivalent).
• Additional requirements may apply as defined by the market sector, or an equivalent combination of education, training, and experience.

Preferred / Nice to Have

• Boot firmware experience (e.g., U-Boot) and system management firmware concepts (e.g., OpenBMC/BIOS concepts) as applicable.
• Experience with networking stacks, performance optimization, diagnostics, or manufacturing test software.
• Experience with cybersecurity features (secure boot, signing, vulnerability management) and software quality improvements.
• Experience working in regulated environments (medical, automotive, aerospace) and creating compliant documentation/test evidence.
• Experience with IPC and mixed-OS architectures (Linux + RTOS), including shared memory, message queues, or RPC frameworks.

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