Firmware Engineer

Requirements

• 5+ years of professional embedded firmware development, with strong experience designing and architecting complex embedded systems
• Strong C for embedded systems
• Multi-microcontroller systems: essential experience designing and developing firmware across systems with multiple microcontrollers, including defining inter-processor communications, interfaces, timing and responsibilities between processors
• Hardware Fluency: comfortable reading schematics and datasheets and using lab equipment to debug at the signal level
• Experience collaborating with electronics engineers through board design and bring-up
• Boot & Security: strong hands-on experience maintaining and developing bootloaders and robust firmware update mechanisms
• Hardware-in-the-Loop Testing: demonstrated experience designing or working with hardware-in-the-loop test environments and using them to validate complex firmware behaviour and system-level interactions
• Engineering Discipline: Git, code review, CI pipelines, static analysis, automated testing and structured design reviews are part of how you work
• Must hold, or be eligible to obtain, an Australian Government Baseline security clearance, and be able to work with export-controlled technical data
• Comfort with Ambiguity: ability to make good decisions with incomplete information, take ownership of architecture and technical direction, and adjust quickly when the picture changes

Nice to have:

• Experience in aerospace, defence, robotics, automotive, medical or another safety- or mission-critical domain
• Rust experience or strong interest in using it for embedded systems
• Python for tooling and test automation
• Experience with secure boot, cryptographic image signing or field-update systems

Benefits

• Opportunity to participate in Employee Share Option Plan (ESOP)
• Opportunity to mentor bright emerging talent through intern program and connections with leading universities

Important Details

• In your first 90 days, you will have built and flashed every active firmware target, understand the architecture of at least one product line end-to-end, and know where the bodies are buried
• In your first 90 days, you will have shipped a meaningful fix or feature to a product or prototype, through review, test and release
• In your first 90 days, you will have contributed to board and sensor bring-up, worked closely with Electronics, and demonstrated your ability to diagnose hardware/firmware interactions and feed those learnings back into system design
• In your first year, you will own a significant firmware subsystem, such as a control loop, sensor interface, or the boot and update chain, and be the go-to engineer for it
• In your first year, your work will have measurably improved field reliability, test coverage or HIL automation
• In your first year, customers and internal teams will trust your firmware releases because they are predictable, traceable and boringly stable
• In your first year, you will actively shape firmware standards, system architecture and design decisions across the department

About the Company

Arkeus builds AI-powered sensing systems that help autonomous platforms detect, track and understand what's happening in complex and contested environments. Its technology is deployed across defence and national security applications, protecting lives and strengthening security across the U.S. and allied markets. Backed by QIC, Main Sequence, R+VC, Salus Ventures, Folklore Ventures, DYNE Ventures and Beaten Zone Venture Partners, Arkeus is entering a major growth phase. It is a small, fast-moving company focused on building a diverse workforce and shipping technology that matters.