Principal Firmware Engineer - Horsham, PA, United States
Originally posted 2 June 2026 by the employer — open 100 days.
Design and develop firmware for optical amplifier modules, optical transport subsystems, and micro-optics modules.
About the role
This role involves designing and developing firmware for new products and providing ongoing support for legacy products.
What you'll do
- Design and develop control algorithms, features, and firmware test processes for multiple products.
- Perform unit functional tests and robustness tests.
- Improve code reusability, execution efficiency, and product performance.
- Ensure firmware documentation is accurate and up to date.
- Resolve sustaining issues, fix bugs in legacy products, and implement new customer-requested features.
- Coach junior engineers on firmware development and drive coding reviews.
What you'll need
- University degree in Electrical Engineering or Computer Science.
- 8+ years of experience in embedded systems real time control systems development with microcontrollers and FPGA hardware.
- Expert in C++ programming in embedded systems.
- Experience in Object Oriented design.
- Practical experience across the entire Agile development lifecycle, including continuous integration, continuous deployment (CI/CD), and collaboration through DevOps practices.
- Experience with lab bench debugging tools such as oscilloscopes and logic analyzers.
Nice to have
- Experience in the Optical Communication industry.
- Experience on assembly programming language.
- Knowledge and experience on NIOS, ARM, and GNU tool chains.
- Knowledge of digital signal processing and control theory, including the design of various filters as well as open-loop and closed-loop control systems.
Skills: firmware development, embedded systems, C++, control algorithms, digital signal processing
This role has been open 175 days — well above the 91-day median for High-Speed IO/SerDes Design roles.
High-Speed IO/SerDes Design · Serdes Highspeed
|
Open roles in category
217
|
Median days open
91 d
|
Median salary
$185k
|
See the full market breakdown ▾Category comparison, skills in demand, and who else is hiring
| Metric | Coherent Corp | All employers we track in this specialty (217 roles · 44 employers) |
|---|---|---|
| Open roles in this specialty | 2 | 217 |
| Open roles in the wider Analog & Mixed-Signal family | 3 | 1317 · 100 employers |
| Median days open | 175 d | 91 d (+84 d vs this employer) |
| Median salary (USD postings) | — | $185k |
Skills observed across this category: firmware development, embedded systems, C++, control algorithms, digital signal processing
Who's hiring in this category
- AMD · 24 open roles · median 61 d
- Cadence Design Systems · 19 open roles · median 153 d
- Qualcomm · 17 open roles · median 74 d
- Synopsys · 16 open roles · median 53 d
- Broadcom · 11 open roles · median 142 d
- NVIDIA · 10 open roles · median 95 d
How we counted: 217 open High-Speed IO/SerDes Design (Serdes Highspeed) roles from 44 employers tracked in the SemiconductorJobs index, counted 10 Sept 2026. Specialty figures count only roles carrying this exact specialty label, so an employer's related work in neighbouring specialties is not included there — it is counted in the wider Analog & Mixed-Signal family row. Figures refresh nightly.