Firmware Engineer, Staff

We’re building the world’s most advanced die-to-die (D2D) semiconductor IP and chiplet solutions for the chiplet ecosystem. With the recent advance driven by the UCIe consortium, Alphawave is looking to push forward Moore’s law by taking advantage of chiplet standardization and technology.

Why Alphawave SEMI

We are looking for an experienced Staff Level Firmware Engineer to join our dynamic Central R&D Software team and lead the firmware development of our UCIe Chiplets portfolio. This critical role includes everything from pre-silicon to post-silicon stages and entails implementing and utilizing software/firmware/embedded industry best practices. The ideal candidate will have experience driving firmware definition, architecture, and development starting from the RTL/Digital design phase with EDA tool/simulator integration all the way to the post silicon phase with board level bring up and debug. It is a collaborative role where you will need to work with Hardware/Systems/Software teams to drive requirements and successful chip bringup. You will also be working with firmware and embedded software engineers to drive code re-use throughout the organization, program managers to identify and work toward deadlines and timelines, and other cross functional teams as needed from the hardware, systems, or software side. This individual will be instrumental in building next-generation chiplet IP and semiconductors that meet our organization’s high performance and quality standards.

What You’ll Do

• Gather requirements, studying high level designs and turning them into smaller building blocks to bring the hardware up and integrate the blocks into a bigger system
• Work with multi-functional teams to come up with the detailed bring up and validation requirements, collaborating with hardware, software and systems engineers to meet performance goals
• Communicate requirements and coordinate execution with multiple teams
• Translating bring up and validation requirements into efficient firmware code, PCB requirements, software organization as applicable
• Oversee the entire firmware lifecycle for UCIe Chiplets, from pre-silicon design to post-silicon validation and optimization
• Developing for test and debug to help guide hardware design decisions for future product iterations
• Work closely with hardware design engineers to provide input into chip architecture, requirements, and functionalities
• Implement and utilize best practices in the software industry to ensure high-quality firmware designs
• Stay up-to-date with the latest trends and advancements in the semiconductor industry, and incorporate relevant innovations into our processes
• Develop and document firmware and hardware design specifications and decisions
• Mentor junior engineers, promote team building, and strive for continuous improvement in processes and techniques.
• Debug and root cause, document and drive issues (i.e. low level SW, HW, etc.) to closure
• Drive multi-functional teams and partners to address challenges seen during integration and bring-up, ensure chips are seamlessly brought up, validated, tested, and meets product and business requirements
• Demonstrate full ownership of assigned systems/components. Handle timelines and resolve project challenges in order to meet program timing
• Working with external vendors or customers to ensure requirements are met and releases are of high quality
• Planning and developing test cases which enhance reliability and release quality to internal and external stakeholders and ensuring they are continuously tested in regression

What You’ll Need:

• BS or MS in Computer Science/Electrical or Electronics engineering or a related field.
• Proficient in C/C++, Python
• 6+ years of experience with embedded systems like ARM, RISCV, MIPS, etc and strong programming skills. Working experience with low-level programming on bare metal, BIOS/UEFI firmware, linux kernel, RTOS, device driver, ROS, etc.
• Familiarity with industry-standard EDA tools and methodologies
• Familiarity with hardware description languages (HDLs) such as Verilog and SystemVerilog
• Experience with SerDes, Ethernet and/or PCIe products and communication systems
• Hands-on experience in the lab with CPU, SoC, FPGA, MCU, and DSP component validation and developing tests and debug tools
• Knowledge of peripherals/protocols such as 1G/10G Ethernet, DDR, I2C, SPI/QSPI, MIPI/CSI, GMSL, A2B, I2S, TDM, LVDS, PCIe, USB, NVME, CAN, etc.
• Bring up and diagnostics experience with high speed signals
• Experience creating Error monitoring and Board/Interface configuration APIs
• Fluent with a variety of bring-up tools, like oscilloscope, JTAG debugger, I2C/SPI tools, etc.
• Strong organizational and communication skills, willingness to learn and confront technical challenges

Nice to have:

• Experience with embedded linux development, Buildroot and Yocto, RTOSes like Zephyr and FreeRTOS
• Hardware hands-on and debugging experience, such as Power, SI, EMC validation and tuning
• Experience with Jira, Agile/Scrum, Confluence
• Open source projects