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Principal Firmware Engineer - Coherent Optical Firmware

USG, Inc.
Santa Clara, CA Full Time
POSTED ON 7/8/2026
AVAILABLE BEFORE 8/8/2026

Senior Principal Firmware Engineer – Coherent Optical Firmware

Location: Santa Clara, CA (Onsite)
Type: Permanent
Salary: $200,000 – $250,000/year

Hiring Manager's Must-Haves

  • 15 years of Embedded Firmware/Software experience
  • Strong Coherent Optics expertise (400ZR, 800ZR, CPO)
  • Firmware architecture ownership for optical modules
  • Hands-on C, C , and Python development
  • CMIS, bootloaders, firmware upgrades, flash management
  • SoC/MCU/DSP-based embedded systems
  • Customer-facing experience with hyperscalers, telecom, or optical networking customers
  • Background in optical module, optical semiconductor, or networking companies

Job Summary

Team is seeking a Senior Principal Firmware Engineer to lead firmware development for next-generation coherent optical modules and Co-Packaged Optics (CPO) platforms. This role will own firmware architecture, development, validation, and production release activities while working closely with DSP, hardware, validation, and customer teams.

Key Responsibilities

  • Own firmware development for 400ZR, 800ZR, and coherent optical module platforms.
  • Lead bring-up, calibration, validation, and production releases.
  • Design bootloaders, CMIS-compliant firmware, hitless upgrade mechanisms, and control/calibration engines.
  • Drive cross-functional collaboration with DSP, hardware, ATE, and validation teams.
  • Support customer engagements, technical escalations, and field issue resolution.
  • Mentor engineers and contribute to firmware platform architecture and release processes.

Required Skills

  • 15 years of Embedded Firmware Development
  • Coherent Optical Firmware (400ZR/800ZR/CPO)
  • C, C , Python
  • CMIS / C-CMIS / OIF-400ZR
  • Bootloaders & Hitless Firmware Upgrades
  • Flash Management
  • SoC, MCU, DSP Architectures
  • Hardware Bring-Up & Debugging
  • ATE Integration
  • GitLab, Jira, CI/CD

Preferred

  • Experience with optical module or optical semiconductor companies
  • Knowledge of Marvell coherent DSP platforms
  • Experience with EDFA, MZ, TOSA calibration/control algorithms
  • Background supporting hyperscale cloud, telecom, or carrier networking customers

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Salary : $200,000 - $250,000

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