Principal/Staff Engineer – Firmware Development

Our client is a global technology leader specializing in advanced memory and storage solutions that power next-generation computing and data-driven applications. With strong expertise in semiconductor innovation, the organization develops high-performance memory technologies across DRAM, NAND, and storage platforms for applications spanning data centers, artificial intelligence, mobile devices, client computing, and intelligent edge ecosystems.

Driven by a commitment to technology advancement, operational excellence, and customer-centric innovation, the company plays a significant role in enabling modern digital infrastructure and compute-intensive workloads worldwide.

Responsibilities:

SUPPORT CUSTOMERS AND DEBUG FIRMWARE

• Customer engineering support: Act as the primary technical escalation point for Security Firmware on SSD products — triage, prioritize, and drive customer reported security issues to closure within committed response times
• Security feature enablement: Guide customers through the configuration, integration, and validation of SSD security features; including, but not limited to: TCG Opal/Pyrite/Ruby and Enterprise SSC, ATA and NVMe security commands, self-encrypting drive operation, secure boot and signed firmware update, sanitize and cryptographic erase, key management, and device attestation
• Debug and root cause analysis: Reproduce customer, qualification, and field failures in the lab; analyze firmware logs, traces, and bus captures; debug Security Firmware source; and deliver documented root cause and corrective action
• Firmware fixes and validation: Develop, unit test, and functionally validate targeted Security Firmware changes and customer specific configurations and builds, ensuring each change meets the security, functional, performance, and quality/reliability requirements of the technical spec matrix before release
• Vulnerability and incident response: Assess the impact of reported vulnerabilities and security findings on products already in the field, and support mitigation planning, remediation delivery, and customer disclosure
• Customer qualification and compliance support: Support customer security audits, security questionnaires, and certification activities (e.g. TCG specification compliance, FIPS 140-3, Common Criteria), and produce the application notes, integration guides, and technical documentation customers depend on

STAKEHOLDER MANAGEMENT

• Represent our client in direct technical engagement with customer engineering teams, translating Security Firmware behavior, constraints, and risk into terms that are clear to both engineering and non-engineering audiences
• Dedicatedly provide to management, multi-functional team members, and the firmware team consistent, detailed, and properly summarized information regarding customer issues, escalation status, and the progress of firmware fixes
• Maintain accurate issue records, root cause reports, and knowledge base content so that recurring customer questions are answered faster over time

PEOPLE DEVELOPMENT

• Multi-functional Teamwork: Develop and maintain collaborative, open and, constructive relationships with peers, management, and partner teams across firmware development, product engineering, quality, and field applications
• Team Development: Provide technical capability that continuously improves team involvement, morale, and productivity
• Personal Development: Work to continuously improve your technical capability and communication skills

AI UTILIZATION

• Integrates AI-assisted tools and insights into daily work to improve efficiency, quality, or effectiveness, exercising sound judgment and complying with organizational standards and requirements.
• Contributes to a culture of continuous improvement by identifying, testing, and sharing AI-enabled enhancements within one’s scope of work.

Requirements:

• Bachelor's/master's degree in computer or electrical engineering with 5+ years of relevant experience.
• Experience in a customer facing engineering role such as customer engineering support, field applications, sustaining engineering, or escalation management is strongly preferred
• Embedded Security domain knowledge and experience, including cryptography fundamentals (AES, RSA/ECC, SHA), key management, secure boot, and secure firmware update
• Familiarity with storage security standards and features such as TCG Opal and Enterprise SSC, ATA Security, NVMe security and sanitize commands, and self-encrypting drives is an advantage
• Expertise in the use of programming languages (eg. C, C++, RUST), programming tools & environments
• Experience programming in Python for test automation, log parsing, and debug tooling is an advantage
• Understanding of storage interfaces including ideally PCIe/NVMe, SATA, or SAS
• Experience with NAND flash and other non-volatile storage is an advantage
• Experience in storage industry, storage systems, or a related technology is an advantage
• Proficiency in debugging and resolving code problems for firmware applications, including the use of debuggers, firmware trace and log analysis, and protocol analyzers
• Experience with defect tracking, change control, and firmware release processes in a production or sustaining environment
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to manage multiple concurrent escalations under time pressure and stay effective in customer visible situations
• Ability to apply baseline digital fluency and role-appropriate AI literacy to use AI-enabled tools responsibly and effectively for research, analysis, content creation, problem-solving, operational tasks, and achieving business outcomes.