Senior Staff Firmware Engineer

Mission

Own the end‑to‑end development of low‑level firmware that brings Groq’s AI‑accelerator hardware to life. Drive architectural decisions, mentor a growing team of firmware engineers, and champion best‑in‑class processes that accelerate time‑to‑market while raising the overall quality and reliability of our products.

Responsibilities & Opportunities In This Role

• Technical Leadership
• Serve as the primary technical authority for firmware across the product stack (bootloader, drivers, RTOS, application‑level services). Provide vision, set standards, and make trade‑off decisions that balance performance, power, security, and maintainability.
• Team Enablement
• Lift up the team by conducting regular design reviews, pair‑programming sessions, and “firmware brown‑bag” tech talks. Mentor junior and mid‑level engineers; create growth paths that move engineers toward senior‑staff or principal levels.
• Architecture & Design
• Translate Product Requirement Documents (PRDs) into detailed firmware specifications, architecture diagrams, and interface contracts.
• Define modular, reusable firmware frameworks that can be leveraged across multiple Groq products.
• Leverage deep Embedded Linux and RTOS expertise, including crafting and maintaining Device Tree blobs to describe firmware‑hardware configuration for custom board integration.
• Design and document the firmware‑hardware interface, ensuring seamless integration with the device tree and RTOS layers.
• Performance & Reliability
• Lead systematic profiling, optimization, and validation of latency‑critical paths (e.g., LPU DMA, interrupt latency, power‑state transitions). Implement robust error‑handling, watchdog, and safety mechanisms to guarantee > 99.99 % uptime in production.
• Cross‑Functional Collaboration
• Work hand‑in‑hand with hardware, silicon, system‑software, and AI‑software teams to co‑design interfaces (PCIe, DDR, high‑speed SerDes, I²C, SPI, etc.). Drive integration‑test strategies and resolve cross‑domain bugs quickly.
• Continuous Improvement
• Identify and implement process improvements (CI/CD pipelines for firmware, automated regression testing, static analysis, code‑review standards). Champion a culture of data‑driven decision making that yields measurable quality gains.
• Bring‑up & Debug
• Lead bring‑up activities for new LPU silicon, including bootloader development, early‑stage peripheral bring‑up, and post‑silicon validation. Perform hands‑on debugging in the lab using oscilloscopes, logic analyzers, JTAG/SWD, and in‑system trace tools.
• Security & Compliance
• Integrate secure boot, firmware encryption, attestation, and other security primitives. Support product certification (e.g., FCC, CE) and GTM readiness activities.
  

Ideal Candidates Have/are

• B.S. in Computer Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Computer Science, or a related field.
• 10  years of professional firmware development experience on complex, high‑performance SoC/ASIC platforms (preferably AI/ML accelerators).
• Deep knowledge of C/C (C‑11 or later), assembly, and low‑level hardware interaction (memory‑mapped I/O, interrupt handling, DMA, bootloader design).
• Proven experience with real‑time operating systems (FreeRTOS, Zephyr, VxWorks, ThreadX) and/or bare‑metal firmware for latency‑critical workloads.
• Proficiency with high‑speed interfaces (PCIe Gen3/4, DDR4/5, SerDes, Ethernet), and lower‑speed buses (SPI, I²C, UART, CAN).
  
  

Nice To Have

• AI/ML Firmware – Prior work on firmware for AI/ML inference engines, tensor accelerators, or similar workloads.
• Datacenter Exposure – Understanding of server‑grade power, cooling, and reliability requirements.
  
  

Compensation: At Groq, a competitive base salary is part of our comprehensive compensation package, which includes equity and benefits. For this role, the base salary range is $193k to $330k, determined by your location, skills, qualifications, experience and internal benchmarks. This range is specific to roles in the United States, compensation for candidates outside the USA will be dependent on the local market.

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