Sr. Embedded Firmware Engineer Contractor - San Diego, CA, United States
$75 - $85 USD hourly
Originally posted 26 August 2026 by the employer.
Develop firmware for a high-performance multichannel thermal control system based on an STM32H7 microcontroller.
About the role
This role involves developing firmware for a high-performance multichannel thermal control system that performs fast simultaneous temperature acquisition, executes multiple independent PID control loops, and communicates system data through a 100 Mbps Ethernet interface.
What you'll do
- Develop bare-metal firmware for an STM32H7-based thermal control platform.
- Implement simultaneous temperature acquisition from I2C and RTDs.
- Develop, implement, and tune multiple independent PID-based control loops.
- Support hardware bring-up, integration, and validation activities.
- Debug peripherals and interfaces like ADCs, I2C, PWM, Ethernet, and GPIOs.
- Work closely with hardware engineers to diagnose and resolve board-level and system-level issues.
What you'll need
- BS degree in electrical engineering, computer engineering or closely related field and 7+ years of embedded firmware development experience OR MS degree in electrical engineering, computer engineering, or closely related field and 4+ years of embedded firmware development experience.
- Experience developing and tuning temperature control systems, power control systems, or other real-time feedback control applications.
- Strong C programming skills.
- Extensive experience with development on STM32H7 devices.
- Experience implementing PID or other closed-loop control algorithms.
- Experience with hardware bring-up, prototype validation, and schematic review.
- Proficiency using oscilloscopes, logic analyzers, and digital multimeters to troubleshoot firmware and hardware integration issues.
This role has been open 50 days — below the 56-day median for Embedded Firmware Engineering roles.
Embedded Firmware Engineering · Systems Software
|
Open roles in category
723
|
Median days open
56 d
|
Median salary
$166k
|
See the full market breakdown ▾Category comparison, and who else is hiring
| Metric | Cohu | All employers we track in this specialty (723 roles · 82 employers) |
|---|---|---|
| Open roles in this specialty | 2 | 723 |
| Open roles in the wider Software, Firmware & Systems family | 13 | 6127 · 145 employers |
| Median days open | 102 d | 56 d (+46 d vs this employer) |
| Median salary (USD postings) | — | $166k |
Who's hiring in this category
- Qualcomm · 117 open roles · median 65 d
- Micron Technology · 61 open roles · median 83 d
- NVIDIA · 59 open roles · median 57 d
- AMD · 58 open roles · median 35 d
- Lattice Semiconductor · 43 open roles · median 36 d
- NXP Semiconductors · 28 open roles · median 42 d
How we counted: 723 open Embedded Firmware Engineering (Systems Software) roles from 82 employers tracked in the SemiconductorJobs index, counted 15 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.