Principal Embedded Software Engineer
NXP Semiconductors · Posted Oct 13
High-performance mixed-signal and standard semiconductor products for automotive, industrial, and mobile applications
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About the role
NXP's embedded platforms organization builds secure, resilient and recoverable hardware-software platforms spanning MCU firmware, RTOS, embedded Linux and platform-management protocols. The work covers low-level embedded software, hardware-backed security, secure boot and firmware updates for NXP MCUs and MPUs. This Principal Embedded Software Engineer role owns the architecture and technical direction of these embedded platforms while remaining hands-on with driver, middleware and bring-up development, and mentors engineers through design reviews and root-cause analysis.
What you will do
- Own the software architecture and technical direction for embedded platforms. Analyze hardware and requirements documentation, and translate system requirements into software architecture, component boundaries, interface definitions, implementation plans, and validation strategies. Identify technical risks early and use prototypes to evaluate uncertain design decisions.
- Architect firmware, drivers, subsystems (e.g., security), middleware, and applications while ensuring effective hardware-software integration. Address initialization dependencies, asynchronous communication, concurrency, resource constraints, fault handling, and recovery mechanisms.
- Remain hands-on with critical development activities. Implement and review complex drivers and middleware, support platform bring-up, and lead root-cause analysis across hardware, firmware, protocols, and operating system components.
- Lead engineering quality and technical execution by establishing design review and validation standards, mentoring engineers, guiding work breakdown and delivery planning, and coordinating with cross-functional teams, architects, customers, and open-source communities.
Skills used in this role
What the employer is looking for
- Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in a relevant engineering discipline, with 10+ years of embedded software experience and a demonstrated track record of technical ownership for complex platforms or subsystems.
- Strong hands-on proficiency in C and low-level embedded software development, with deep expertise in processor architecture, interrupts, DMA, synchronization, memory protection, and hardware–software interactions.
- Substantial expertise in one or more of the following areas: Zephyr OS, RTOS-based MCU development, or embedded Linux platform development, complemented by practical experience integrating firmware, drivers, middleware, and host-side software.
- Demonstrated implementation or architectural experience in at least one of the following domains: firmware development, secure boot, platform security, or specification-driven software development.
- Proven ability to lead complex debugging efforts, conduct architecture and code reviews, mentor engineers, and resolve technical trade-offs while remaining actively involved in implementation.
- Strong communication, technical documentation, planning, and cross-functional collaboration skills, with a proven ability to take ambiguous technical challenges from investigation through implementation and validation.
Preferred qualifications
- Experience with Rust.
- Experience with FPGA-based firmware development.
- Upstream open-source contributions.
- Experience developing software for NXP MCUs or MPUs.
- Experience with secure boot, hardware-backed security, trusted firmware, secure firmware updates, or recovery systems, including the ability to reason about trust boundaries, failure modes, and the security implications of design decisions.
Benefits and support
- Compensation and benefits are detailed in the job posting
About NXP Semiconductors
NXP Semiconductors enables secure connections and infrastructure for a smarter world, advancing solutions that make lives easier, better, and safer. As a global semiconductor leader, the company drives innovation in automotive processing, secure connected edge systems, industrial IoT, and mobile communications infrastructure.
- Industry
- Semiconductors
- Company size
- 32169 employees
- Founded
- 2006
- Location
- Eindhoven, Netherlands
- Funding stage
- Public Company
Funding
Public Company
Leadership
Rafael Sotomayor
President and Chief Executive Officer
Bill Betz
Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer
Lars Reger
Executive Vice President and Chief Technology Officer
Chris Jensen
Executive Vice President and Chief People Officer
Jennifer Wuamett
Executive Vice President, General Counsel, and Chief Sustainability Officer
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