Lead Firmware Developer - Device Driver

Lead Firmware Developer - Device Driver 

Minimum 9 years of Experience in Embedded Development

Minimum 7 years of Experience in Device Driver Development and BSP development

At least 2 years of Experience with C++ & RTOS environment

SUMMARY OF ROLE

Emerson develops and sustains Flow Computers and Remote Terminal Units (RTUs) used for critical measurement, monitoring, automation, and control applications in the Oil & Gas and industrial automation markets.

The Device Driver Lead Developer will provide hands-on technical leadership for the architecture, design, development, work product reviews, and sustainment of low-level embedded software. The role contributes to device drivers, Board Support Packages (BSPs), boot software, board bring-up, and hardware-software integration for existing and next-generation products.

The successful candidate will work as a senior individual contributor within a global Agile/Scrum team, collaborating with hardware, systems, application software, verification, cybersecurity, functional safety, manufacturing, and product teams. The role requires strong ownership, sound engineering judgment, and the ability to convert product and system requirements into reliable, reusable, and maintainable embedded solutions.

SPECIFIC JOB RESPONSIBILITIES

Responsibilities of the job will include:

• Technical leadership: Design and delivery of assigned device drivers, BSPs, bootloaders, hardware abstraction layers, and low-level platform services. 

• Architecture and design: Define scalable, reusable, and maintainable solutions across product families. Create and review requirements, interface specifications, and design documents.

  • Driver development: Develop and sustain drivers for interfaces and peripherals such as UART, SPI, I²C, GPIO, timers, watchdogs, RTC, ADC/DAC, DMA, Ethernet, USB, CAN, flash memory, and other processor-specific peripherals.

  • Board bring-up: Perform board bring-up and hardware-software integration. Collaborate with hardware engineers on schematic reviews, component selection, FPGA interfaces, memory configuration, timing, and prototype validation.

  • Real-time performance: Analyze and optimize interrupt latency, task scheduling, memory usage, throughput, boot time, CPU utilization, DMA operation, determinism, and system reliability.

  • Product development lifecycle: Contribute to requirements analysis, estimation, architecture, detailed design, coding, peer reviews, unit testing, integration testing, system validation, release, and sustaining activities.

  • Troubleshooting and root-cause analysis: Diagnose complex hardware-software problems using JTAG, trace tools, oscilloscopes, logic analyzers, protocol analyzers, memory dumps, and system logs. Drive corrective and preventive actions for product, manufacturing, and field issues.

  • Safety and cybersecurity: Incorporate secure coding, defensive design, least-privilege access, secure update, fault detection, diagnostics, and applicable functional-safety and product-security requirements.

  • Collaboration: Work effectively with global cross-functional teams and participate in sprint planning, daily stand-ups, reviews, retrospectives, technical reviews, and release-readiness activities.

  • Innovation and continuous improvement: Evaluate new processors, RTOS capabilities, tools, and development methods. Build proofs of concept and improve software reuse.

  • Team capability: Coach team members and provide technical guidance to support team growth and project success. Participate in organizational goals to build a better & strong team.

  • Compliance: Adhere to Emerson engineering processes, quality systems, product lifecycle practices, and applicable local and international standards and procedures.

REQUIRED QUALIFICATIONS AND EXPERIENCE

• Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Electronics, Computer Engineering, or a related engineering discipline from a recognized institution.

• Expert-level proficiency in C, C++; practical understanding of assembly language, linker scripts, startup code, and object-oriented analysis and design.

  • Extensive hands-on experience developing production-quality device drivers, BSPs, bootloaders, and hardware abstraction layers in an RTOS-based embedded environment.

  • Strong knowledge of ARM Cortex-M and/or Cortex-A architectures, exception models, interrupt controllers, caches, MMU/MPU, multicore considerations, memory maps, and low-level processor initialization.

  • Hands-on experience with RTOS concepts including scheduling, synchronization, interrupt service routines, inter-process/inter-task communication, timing, resource management, and concurrency defect analysis.

  • Experience interfacing and debugging flash memory, SDRAM/DDR, ADC/DAC, Ethernet controllers, FPGA interfaces, and common serial peripherals; proven use of DMA for performance optimization.

  • Strong understanding of board bring-up, schematic interpretation, datasheets, timing diagrams, signal integrity considerations, and hardware-software interface debugging.

  • Expertise with oscilloscopes, logic analyzers, protocol analyzers, JTAG/SWD debuggers, GDB or equivalent debuggers, trace tools, and performance profiling tools.

PREFERRED QUALIFICATIONS

• Experience with one or more platforms such as VxWorks, ThreadX, QNX, or Embedded Linux.

• Knowledge of industrial protocols and systems such as Modbus, DNP3, HART, OPC UA, I/O systems, PLCs, RTUs, transmitters, and sensors.

• Experience with Flow Computers, RTUs, edge controllers, industrial automation, process control, Oil & Gas measurement, or other high-reliability embedded products.

• Working knowledge of secure boot, signed firmware, secure firmware update, cryptographic services, key storage, vulnerability remediation, and embedded product security.

• Awareness of IEC 62443, secure development lifecycle practices, and functional-safety concepts applicable to industrial computing products.

CORE COMPETENCIES 

The successful candidate will:

• Systems thinking: Understands interactions among processors, hardware, FPGA, RTOS, drivers, applications, and product requirements.

• Customer focus: Connects design choices to product reliability, maintainability, field performance, and customer outcomes.

• Problem solving: Uses structured analysis, evidence, and rigorous logic to identify root causes, evaluate trade-offs, and implement effective solutions.

• Ownership and accountability: Takes end-to-end responsibility for commitments, risks, technical quality, and timely delivery.

• Quality mindset: Produces robust, testable, maintainable software and does not compromise engineering discipline for short-term progress.

• Communication and influence: Communicates complex technical topics clearly, documents decisions, listens to alternatives, and influences across functions and locations.

• Coaching and collaboration: Coach team members, gives constructive feedback, shares knowledge, and creates an inclusive environment for technical discussion.

• Learning agility and innovation: Quickly learns new processors, tools, standards, and domains; converts learning into practical improvements and reusable solutions.

• Execution: Prioritizes effectively, anticipates dependencies, removes impediments, and consistently delivers high-quality outcomes.