Senior Firmware Engineer (Hardware Systems & Data)

About Thrively is partnering with a very well-funded, early-stage deep tech company building a completely new class of systems at the intersection of hardware, data, and physical processes.

This is not a typical embedded firmware role. You’ll be the second firmware engineer on the team, working on how data moves through a complex, real-world system, owning the behavior across hardware, firmware, and data pipelines.

Why this is interesting:

• Backed by $100M+ in funding from top-tier investors
• Building novel systems that combine physical processes with modern data infrastructure
• Small, high-caliber team where engineers have real ownership
• Greenfield opportunity to shape system architecture from the ground up

What you’ll work on

• Design and build firmware that orchestrates data flow through a physical system
• Own end-to-end system behavior across hardware, embedded software, and compute layers
• Develop high-performance data pipelines (capture → buffer → transform → move)
• Work closely with hardware teams on system bring-up, debugging, and validation
• Identify and resolve real-world system bottlenecks (latency, throughput, reliability)

What we’re looking for

We’re looking for engineers who think in systems, not just components.

Strong candidates typically have:

• 8–12+ years of experience in embedded/firmware engineering
• Strong C/C++ fundamentals
• Experience working at the hardware ↔ firmware boundary
• A track record of building or owning complex systems end-to-end
• Comfort debugging across multiple layers (hardware, firmware, system behavior)
• Experience with data pipelines or high-throughput systems (e.g., video, sensors, signal processing)
• Exposure to FPGA / RTL / hardware data paths
• Work on instrumentation, robotics, imaging, or other real-world systems
• Experience in early-stage or fast-moving environments

This is NOT a fit if your background is primarily:

• MCU/RTOS-only firmware (without broader system ownership)
• IoT / BLE / connectivity-focused roles
• Automotive AUTOSAR stacks
• Pure BSP / driver-layer development