Staff/Senior Staff/Principal Firmware Engineer

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Staff/Senior Staff/Principal Firmware Engineer

role at

Alphawave Semi

The Opportunity

We’re looking for the Wavemakers of tomorrow. Alphawave Semi enables tomorrow’s future by accelerating the critical data communication at the heart of our digital world – from seamless video streaming to AI, the metaverse, and much more. Our technology powers product innovation in the most data‑demanding industries today, including data centers, networking, storage, artificial intelligence, 5G wireless infrastructure, and autonomous vehicles. Customers partner with us for mission‑critical data communication, our innovative technologies, and our proven track record. Together, we enable the next generation of digital technology.

Role Overview

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. We are looking for an experienced Firmware Engineer to join our dynamic Central R&D Software team and lead the firmware development of our UCIe chiplets portfolio. 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 device level bring‑up and debug. It is a collaborative role where you will work with Hardware/Systems/Software teams to drive requirements and successful chip bring‑up. You will also be working with firmware and embedded software engineers to drive code reuse 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, study high‑level designs, develop device interface functions and turn small building blocks into higher‑level firmware system design.

Work with multi‑functional teams to develop detailed bring‑up and validation requirements, collaborating with ASIC/Digital Design, Digital Verification, software and systems engineers to meet performance goals.

Communicate requirements and coordinate execution with multiple teams.

Translate bring‑up and validation requirements into efficient C/C++ firmware code and software organization as applicable.

Bonus: experience developing drivers for multiple devices at the PCB level to interact with whole systems.

Oversee the entire firmware lifecycle for UCIe chiplets, from pre‑silicon design to post‑silicon validation and optimization.

Develop for test and debug to guide hardware design decisions for future product iterations.

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 (e.g., low‑level SW, silicon, HW, etc.) to closure.

Drive multi‑functional teams and partners to address challenges seen during integration and bring‑up, ensuring chips are seamlessly brought up, validated, tested, and meet product and business requirements.

Demonstrate full ownership of assigned systems/components. Handle timelines and resolve project challenges to meet program timing.

Work with external vendors or customers to ensure requirements are met and releases are of high quality.

Plan and develop test cases that enhance reliability and release quality for internal and external stakeholders, ensuring they are continuously tested in regression.

What you’ll need:

BS or MS in Computer Science, Electrical, Computer Engineering or a related field.

Proficient in C/C++, Python.

6+ years of experience with embedded systems such as 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, etc.

Systems mindset and experience developing SW/FW to control analog, digital, and mixed‑signal circuits.

Familiarity with industry‑standard EDA tools and methodologies used for digital verification.

Familiarity with hardware description languages (HDLs) such as Verilog and SystemVerilog.

Experience with SerDes, Ethernet, PCIe, or D2D/UCIe/Chiplet 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.

Experience working with FPGAs, Xilinx, Zed, MicroZed.

Hardware hands‑on and debugging experience, such as Power, SI, EMC validation and tuning.

Experience with Jira, Agile/Scrum, Confluence.

Open source projects.

Benefits Health & Wellness

Comprehensive health plan

Health Spending Account (HSA)

Wellness Spending Account (WSA)

Employee Assistance Program (EAP)

Time Off

Paid Vacation

Paid Holidays

Parental Leave Top‑Up Program

Equal Employment Opportunity Statement Alphawave Semi is an equal opportunity employer, welcoming all applicants regardless of age, gender, race, disability, or other protected characteristics. We value diversity and provide accommodations during the recruitment process.

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