Firmware Development Engineer

Intel Intel · Semiconductors · Bangalore, India

Firmware Development Engineer at Intel, focusing on designing, developing, and maintaining embedded firmware for silicon, SoC subsystems, and controllers. Responsibilities include end-to-end feature ownership, low-level driver development, RTOS integration, pre-silicon to post-silicon debug, and collaboration with cross-functional teams. Requires strong C/C++, embedded systems fundamentals, and experience with pre-silicon workflows and debugging tools.

What you'd actually do

  1. Design, develop, and maintain embedded firmware for silicon, SoC subsystems, controllers, or platform components (boot, PCIe, memory, power/thermal, security, manageability).
  2. Own firmware features end-to-end: requirements, design, implementation, bring-up, validation, performance tuning, and production support.
  3. Develop low-level drivers and HAL layers; integrate with RTOS or bare-metal environments; support pre-silicon (simulation/emulation/FPGA) through post-silicon debug.
  4. Debug complex HW/FW/SW issues using logs, traces, JTAG and lab instrumentation; drive root-cause and corrective actions.
  5. Collaborate with architecture, hardware, validation, manufacturing and software teams; review specs, propose changes, and ensure compliance to interface standards.

Skills

Required

  • B.E./B.Tech in Electrical Engineering / Computer Engineering or Computer Science
  • 6+ years of hands-on experience in design, implementation, testing and troubleshooting of software/firmware on embedded platforms
  • Strong C/C++ (firmware-grade): memory-mapped I/O, bitfield manipulation, interrupts, DMA, cache/MMU basics, concurrency, and performance constraints
  • Embedded systems fundamentals: boot flows, linker scripts, memory layout, watchdogs, power states, error handling/recovery
  • RTOS experience (FreeRTOS/Zephyr/ThreadX/XOS) and Linux kernel/driver familiarity for platform-facing firmware
  • Pre-silicon workflows: simulation/emulation/FPGA, test automation, Python for tooling, and CI/CD for firmware
  • Hardware/firmware bring-up: board-level debug, interpreting logic analyzer/oscilloscope traces (as applicable)
  • Debugging expertise: root-cause analysis across layers; experience with JTAG/SWD, GDB, trace tools, crash dumps, and log-based triage
  • Version control and development hygiene: Git, code reviews, branching/release practices, and issue tracking
  • Clear technical communication: design docs, interface definitions, and cross-team coordination
  • Experience with ARM, Xtensa, ARC based processors and micro-controllers and communications protocols
  • Proactive and driven by mission

Nice to have

  • High speed interfaces like Ethernet, PCIe, DDR/memory controllers and USB
  • Low speed interfaces like I2C, SPI, UART interfaces
  • UEFI/BIOS, bootloaders, secure boot, manageability, cryptography fundamentals

What the JD emphasized

  • 6+ years of hands-on experience
  • Strong C/C++ (firmware-grade)
  • Embedded systems fundamentals
  • Pre-silicon workflows
  • Debugging expertise