Senior Firmware Engineer

Etched is building the hardware for superintelligence.

GPUs and TPUs are flexible AI chips that can run many kinds of models: CNNs, RNNs, LSTMs, and more. But today, almost all AI workloads, from ChatGPT to self-driving cars, are done on one model architecture: transformers. Using flexible AI chips for transformers is very inefficient: <5% of the transistors on an H100 are used for matrix multiplication!

Etched is building a single-purpose chip exclusively for transformer inference. We only support transformers, but in exchange our chips have an order of magnitude more throughput and lower latency than an H100. With Etched, you can build products that would be impossible with GPUs, like tree-of-thought agents and ultra-low-latency audio chat bots.

We are looking for a Firmware Engineer with experience in Real-Time Operating Systems (RTOS) embedded systems development. The ideal candidate will contribute to firmware design, implementation, and optimization for embedded platforms, focusing on RTOS, low-level software, memory controllers, ethernet protocol, and boot loaders.

Responsibilities:

• Design, develop, and maintain firmware solutions for embedded systems.
• Develop device drivers, boot loaders, and low-level software modules for various hardware components, including memory controllers, ethernet, PCIe, and serial interfaces such as I2C, SPI, etc.
• Collaborate closely with hardware teams to comprehend architecture, specifications, memory controllers, boot loader, external IP, requirements, and boot sequence. 
• Conduct debugging, testing, and validation of firmware on target platforms, boot loader reliability, and verification on hardware simulation environment. 

Requirements:

• Ten years of experience in firmware development for RTOS embedded systems, from low-level boot code in assembly, boot loaders, device drivers for memory controllers, and, ideally, experience with ARC CPUs.
• Proficiency in C/C programming for embedded systems.
• Strong understanding and hands-on experience with Real-Time Operating Systems (RTOS) such as Zephyr, ThreadX, etc.
• Solid understanding of hardware/software interaction, device drivers, and low-level software development.
• Familiarity with hardware bring-up, debugging tools, ARM, or other embedded architectures.

Desired qualifications:

• Experience working in hardware simulation/emulation environments.

Benefits:

• Competitive salary and equity package
• Full medical, dental, and vision packages, with 100% of premium covered
• Work with world-class people and state-of-the-art AIs everyday

Etched is committed to fair and equitable compensation practices. Compensation is determined based on your qualifications and experience. Compensation packages also include generous equity in Etched.

We are an equal opportunity employer and do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, age, veteran status, disability or other legally protected statuses.