Senior Embedded Systems Design Engineer - CA, San Jose, United States
Originally posted 9 October 2026 by the employer.
This role focuses on embedded designs for post-silicon system-level validation and board bring-up for FPGA and SoC-based platforms.
About the role
This role involves owning embedded designs for post-silicon system-level validation and board bring-up for FPGA and SoC-based platforms. The work spans networking, storage, automotive, aerospace, and AI/ML workloads.
What you'll do
- Define and drive the silicon-to-solution validation strategy, including plans, coverage, regression, and signoffs.
- Bring up baremetal and embedded Linux to exercise the full system.
- Write firmware and low-level system software for on-chip ARM or RISC-V cores.
- Build and customize embedded Linux images using the Yocto-based Embedded Design Flow (BSP configuration, device trees, kernel/rootfs tuning, custom recipes and layers).
- Own new board bring-up from first power-on through a stable platform, including building scripts, baremetal code, and debug flows.
- Debug complex issues that span silicon, firmware, drivers, and the operating system.
What you'll need
- Experience with embedded systems and hardware validation.
- Proven board bring-up and validation experience, including debugging clocking, reset, power, and hardware issues.
- Proficiency in C/C++ for bare-metal and Linux-based embedded systems on ARM or RISC-V cores.
- Hands-on experience with AMD/Xilinx embedded Linux flows, including building and customizing images with the Yocto-based Embedded Design Flow (BSPs, device trees, custom recipes/layers).
- Experience validating interfaces such as Ethernet, USB, SPI, I²C, UART, and CAN.
- Working knowledge of AMD/Xilinx Vitis and EDF environments.
Nice to have
- Linux kernel-mode driver knowledge.
- Automation experience in Python, Tcl, Shell, and Makefiles, with Git and structured CI/regression workflows.
Skills: embedded Linux, baremetal, board bring-up, device trees, Yocto
This role has been open 0 days — well below the 58-day median for Embedded Firmware Engineering roles.
Embedded Firmware Engineering · Systems Software
|
Open roles in category
725
|
Median days open
58 d
|
Median salary
$168k
|
See the full market breakdown ▾Category comparison, skills in demand, and who else is hiring
| Metric | AMD | All employers we track in this specialty (725 roles · 80 employers) |
|---|---|---|
| Open roles in this specialty | 62 | 725 |
| Open roles in the wider Software, Firmware & Systems family | 406 | 6078 · 146 employers |
| Median days open | 31 d | 58 d (−27 d vs this employer) |
| Median salary (USD postings) | — | $168k |
Skills observed across this category: embedded Linux, baremetal, board bring-up, device trees, Yocto
Who's hiring in this category
- Qualcomm · 127 open roles · median 59 d
- Micron Technology · 61 open roles · median 99 d
- AMD (this employer) · 59 open roles · median 31 d
- NVIDIA · 57 open roles · median 59 d
- Lattice Semiconductor · 41 open roles · median 30 d
- NXP Semiconductors · 29 open roles · median 78 d
How we counted: 725 open Embedded Firmware Engineering (Systems Software) roles from 80 employers tracked in the SemiconductorJobs index, counted 9 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.