Principal Firmware Engineer - USA - CA - San Jose (Ridder), United States
$134,750 - $192,500 USD yearly
Originally posted 5 August 2026 by the employer.
Lumentum is seeking a Principal Firmware Engineer to lead architecture, design, and development of embedded firmware for advanced optical and photonic systems.
About the role
This role involves leading the architecture, design, and development of embedded firmware for advanced optical and photonic systems. You will drive technical direction across firmware platforms and deliver robust, high-quality firmware for high-volume products.
What you'll do
- Own firmware architecture and technical roadmap for embedded platforms supporting optical/laser/telecom or related high-reliability systems.
- Lead end-to-end firmware development from requirements to production release.
- Develop firmware for MCU/MPU-based embedded systems, including board bring-up and low-level drivers.
- Define interfaces and protocols across firmware, hardware, FPGA, optics, and host software (e.g., I2C, SPI, UART, CAN, Ethernet).
- Drive system reliability and quality, including fault handling, diagnostics, telemetry, and robust state-machine design.
- Lead design reviews, code reviews, and root-cause analysis for field issues.
What you'll need
- 10+ years of professional embedded firmware development experience, including ownership of shipped products.
- Expert proficiency in C/C++ for embedded systems, GIT, Segger IDE, Python, data analysis tools (JMP, R), Windows & Linux.
- Deep experience with RTOS development (e.g., FreeRTOS) and Bare-metal firmware (interrupts, bootloaders, HAL/LL drivers).
- Strong skills in board bring-up, debugging, and lab tools (JTAG/SWD, logic analyzer, oscilloscope, optical power meter, optical wavemeter).
- Solid understanding of hardware/firmware integration and digital interfaces (I2C/SPI/UART, GPIO, ADC/DAC, timers, DMA).
- Hands-on experience with optical components/modules calibration and control/PIDs including optical power control/APC loops, bias/current tuning, heater/thermal control, TEC/thermal control, optical signal monitoring, fault management and trend-based telemetry.
Nice to have
- Direct experience developing firmware/software for optical transceiver modules and subsystems.
- Familiarity with module management and host interfaces, including CMIS.
- Experience with optical components (lasers, MZ/IQ modulators) control, performance monitoring, and fault management.
- Understanding of manufacturing test flows and firmware support/API for calibration, characterization, and end-of-line verification, including tooling or scripts (Python).
This role has been open 74 days — well above the 54-day median for Embedded Firmware Engineering roles.
Embedded Firmware Engineering · Systems Software
|
Open roles in category
730
|
Median days open
54 d
|
Median salary
$169k
|
See the full market breakdown ▾Category comparison, and who else is hiring
| Metric | Lumentum | All employers we track in this specialty (730 roles · 83 employers) |
|---|---|---|
| Open roles in this specialty | 7 | 730 |
| Open roles in the wider Software, Firmware & Systems family | 30 | 6118 · 145 employers |
| Median days open | 37 d | 54 d (−17 d vs this employer) |
| Median salary (USD postings) | — | $169k |
Who's hiring in this category
- Qualcomm · 119 open roles · median 52 d
- AMD · 65 open roles · median 36 d
- Micron Technology · 61 open roles · median 86 d
- NVIDIA · 56 open roles · median 60 d
- Lattice Semiconductor · 46 open roles · median 39 d
- NXP Semiconductors · 32 open roles · median 33 d
How we counted: 730 open Embedded Firmware Engineering (Systems Software) roles from 83 employers tracked in the SemiconductorJobs index, counted 18 Oct 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 Software, Firmware & Systems family row. Figures refresh nightly.