Embedded Firmware Engineer (Sr Engineer/Staff)

About the Company

TDK U.S.A. Corporation is the Americas Regional Headquarters of TDK Corporation, a global electronics company based in Japan and publicly listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange. TDK focuses on the demanding markets of information and communication technology, internet of things, automotive, industrial and consumer electronics. TDK's comprehensive product portfolio features electronic components, sensors, power supplies, energy devices, and more. TDK has a network of design, manufacturing, and sales locations in Asia, Europe and the Americas, with global revenues of more than $12 billion. TDK employs more than 113,000 people worldwide, including more than 4,500 in North and South America.

About the Role

We are seeking a highly motivated and hands-on Senior Embedded Firmware Engineer to contribute to the development, validation, and bring-up of a next-generation ultra-low-power Edge AI sensing platform. In this role you will work across always-on sensing, sensor fusion, and Edge AI workloads on embedded MCU, DSP, AI accelerator, and sensor hub subsystems - collaborating closely with ASIC, FPGA, hardware, AI, and product teams to implement and validate firmware from pre-silicon development through silicon bring-up and into production. The ideal candidate brings strong embedded firmware skills, hands-on experience with low-level debugging and hardware bring-up, and a genuine interest in working at the intersection of firmware, hardware, and edge AI.

Responsibilities

• Develop, own, and deliver firmware modules and features in C/C for ARM Cortex-M/A microcontrollers and SoC platforms used in MEMS sensor products.
• Participate in and take ownership of hardware bring-up tasks: power sequencing, peripheral initialization, clock configuration, and early validation of new sensor platforms.
• Follow and contribute to firmware coding standards and architecture guidelines; flag issues and suggest improvements during code reviews.
• Support firmware release and qualification activities: run regression test suites, document results, and help track issues through to resolution.
• Develop and maintain a reusable, well-tested driver framework for serial interfaces: UART, SPI, I²C, CAN, PDM, I3C, and USB.
• Implement and validate calibration, compensation, and self-test routines for sensor characterization and manufacturing test flows.
• Collaborate with hardware engineers at the schematic and PCB level; contribute to design-for-testability and design-for-manufacturing reviews.
• Work with systems and applications engineers to support integration of firmware into customer platforms and help troubleshoot field issues.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree (or higher) in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, Electronics, or a closely related field.
• 5 years of hands-on embedded firmware engineering experience, with a demonstrable track record of shipping products to mass production.
• Strong C and C programming skills for embedded systems; good understanding of software structure, modularity, and resource-constrained design.
• Solid working knowledge of an RTOS (FreeRTOS, Zephyr, or similar): task scheduling, inter-task communication, mutexes, and basic real-time debugging.
• Experience taking a firmware feature or driver from design through integration and testing, ideally on a shipped or near-shipped product.
• Strong knowledge of microcontroller architecture: DMA, interrupt controllers (NVIC), cache coherency, power management, and clock distribution.
• Thorough understanding of serial communication protocols: UART, SPI, I²C, CAN, PDM, and digital MEMS output interfaces.
• Thorough understanding of MEMS sensor families: IMU, pressure, microphone, or environmental sensors.
• Familiarity with code quality practices: static analysis tools (PC-lint, Coverity, or SonarQube), code coverage, and adherence to coding guidelines such as MISRA-C.
• Confident debugging using JTAG/SWD debuggers (J-Link, ST-LINK), logic analyzers, oscilloscopes, and protocol analyzers.
• Ability to read and work from schematics, hardware datasheets, and register maps to implement and validate drivers.
• Version Control: Git with Gerrit, GitHub, or GitLab workflows; branching strategies (Gitflow, trunk-based); mandatory code review via pull/merge requests.

Preferred Skills

• Experience with wearable, mobile, robotics, AR/VR, or ambient computing platforms.
• Familiarity with Android/Linux sensor frameworks.
• Prior experience supporting ASIC definition and silicon development cycles.

Compensation & Benefits:

TDK U.S.A. offers a competitive salary and a comprehensive benefits package including medical, dental, 401(k), pension, life insurance, vacation, and 13 paid holidays.

The starting annual base pay for this role is between 130,000 and 165,000 USD for San Jose, . The actual base is dependent upon many factors, such as: training, transferable skills, work experience, business needs, market demands. The base pay range is subject to change and may be modified in the future.

TDK is an Equal Opportunity Employer