Senior Embedded DSP and SoC Engineer

About the job Zephyrs Ai | Pasadena, CA | On-site| Remote | Full-time| Part-time About Zephyrs Ai Zephyrs Ai builds precision positioning and navigation technology for autonomous systems operating where GPS may be jammed, spoofed, degraded, or unavailable. We are a founder-led, early-stage hardware company building real products for autonomous, aerospace, and advanced mobility applications. We keep the team deliberately small and give strong engineers substantial technical ownership. Detailed product architecture is shared with candidates as the interview process advances. The Role We are looking for a strong embedded DSP / firmware engineer who wants to grow into broad ownership of a high-performance sensing platform. This is not a narrow application-software role. You will work close to the hardware, starting around the HAL, device drivers, board interfaces, and RF front-end control, and extending upward into real-time DSP integration, system control, embedded platform software, and customer-facing interfaces. You do not need to already be an expert in every layer. We care more about strong fundamentals, hands-on ability, and your ability to learn and take ownership of increasingly larger parts of the system. For the right engineer, this role can grow into technical leadership of the embedded platform. What You Will Work On Embedded C/C++ development on a heterogeneous Arm + DSP SoCHAL, BSP, device drivers, memory, clocks, peripherals, DMA, and board-level interfacesBoard bring-up and debugging of new hardwareSPI/I2C control of RF, mixed-signal, and sensing devicesConfiguration and control of an advanced RF/mmWave front endIntegration of real-time DSP and signal-processing componentsInter-processor communication between Arm and DSP coresReal-time state machines, tracking logic, control loops, fault handling, and recoveryEmbedded Linux and/or RTOS platform softwareData acquisition, logging, test interfaces, and system diagnosticsHost, vehicle, and autopilot integration interfacesHardware-in-the-loop testing and performance characterizationProduction and calibration software as the product moves toward deploymentEngineering documentation, source control, build systems, and release processesAs the team grows, strong performers can take increasing ownership of the complete embedded sensing platform. What We Are Looking For 3+ years of relevant hands-on experience; 5+ years preferred. You should have strong experience in several of the following areas — we do not expect one candidate to have all of them: Embedded C/C++ development on production hardwareBare-metal, RTOS, and/or embedded Linux developmentHAL, BSP, firmware, or low-level driver developmentARM, DSP, MCU, FPGA-based, or heterogeneous SoC platformsReal-time digital signal processingBoard bring-up and hardware/software integrationSPI, I2C, UART, Ethernet, or other embedded interfacesDMA, interrupts, memory management, timing, and latency optimizationWorking with oscilloscopes, logic analyzers, JTAG, or similar debugging toolsPython or MATLAB for test, modeling, data analysis, or algorithm evaluationMost importantly, you should be comfortable moving between software, firmware, hardware behavior, and real measurement data when debugging a system. Especially Valuable Experience Experience in any of the following is highly valuable, but not required: Radar, wireless communications, SDR, sonar, or precision sensingmmWave systemsRF or mixed-signal transceiver controlPhased arrays or beamformingAoA / DoA estimationCorrelation, matched filtering, synchronization, or channel estimationRange, phase, frequency, or timing estimationKalman filtering, tracking, sensor fusion, or state estimationWireless or radar baseband processingFixed-point DSP and vector-DSP optimizationNXP Layerscape Access, LA-series, VSPA, S32R, TI DSP, Qualcomm modem/PHY, or similar platformsFPGA or RTL developmentRobotics or autonomous systemsPX4, ArduPilot, or MAVLinkHardware-in-the-loop testingProduction calibration systemsAerospace, defense, semiconductor, automotive radar, robotics, or medical-device developmentThe Engineer We Want We are particularly interested in engineers who can say: “I may not know every part of this system today, but I know how to get from the hardware to working software, understand what is happening at the signal level, and keep taking ownership until the system works.” You should enjoy debugging difficult problems, reading datasheets and schematics, working directly with hardware, and turning incomplete specifications into a functioning product. We value builders over narrow specialists. Education B.S., M.S., or Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, Computer Science, Applied Physics, Robotics, or a related field is welcome. Equivalent hands-on industry experience is equally valued. Work Authorization Candidates must be authorized to work in the United States without current or future visa sponsorship from Zephyrs Ai. Certain projects may involve technology subject to U.S. export-control requirements. Eligibility to access such technology will be evaluated based on the requirements of the specific work involved. Why Join You will join at a stage where an individual engineer can still have a major influence on the architecture and product. Rather than owning one small software component, you will have the opportunity to understand and eventually own a significant portion of the system — from hardware interfaces and real-time processing to the behavior customers ultimately depend on. • • If you enjoy building real systems and want more ownership than a large organization normally gives you, we would like to hear from you.