Senior Firmware Engineer

Overview:Arqaios is building ALLIE, an intelligent sensing platform embedded directly in everyday building fixtures such as light switches, power outlets, and air vents. Using mmWave radar and edge AI, ALLIE delivers real-time fall detection, occupancy awareness, gait monitoring, and energy optimization, all without cameras or wearables. It’s privacy by design, built into the walls.
We’re hiring a Senior Firmware Engineer to own the embedded systems that power ALLIE. You’ll develop the firmware that drives our sensing pipeline, integrate hardware and software at the lowest levels, and ensure our devices perform reliably in production environments. You’ll work shoulder-to-shoulder with our AI/ML team and product leadership to ship a product that people trust with their safety.This is a foundational engineering role at a startup with real traction, patented technology, and a clear path to market. If you want to build something that matters, from the silicon up, this is it.
What You'll Do: Firmware Development & Edge Processing

• Design, develop, and optimize embedded firmware in C/C++ for ALLIE’s sensing fixtures, including radar initialization, ADC acquisition, FFT processing, and ML inference at the edge
• Implement and maintain the full signal processing pipeline
• Develop OTA firmware update mechanisms that allow remote deployment without physical fixture access

Hardware Integration & Bring-Up

• Lead sensor bring-up and configuration for mmWave radar chipsets and environmental sensors
• Own hardware–firmware integration across UART, SPI, I2C, and powerline communication interfaces
• Configure and debug microcontrollers and SoCs (ESP32, ARM-based MCUs), including peripherals, memory, and timing behavior
• Read and interpret hardware schematics, datasheets, and reference designs to drive integration decisions
• Collaborate with PCB design partners on Gen2 fixture design and implementation

Wireless Connectivity & IoT Protocols:

• Design and implement secure wireless communication stacks using Wi-Fi 6 (802.11ax) on ESP32-C6 and similar platforms, ensuring reliable, low-latency data transport between fixtures, hubs, and cloud services
• Lead the integration of Matter and Thread protocols to position ALLIE fixtures as interoperable nodes within the broader smart home ecosystem (Apple Home, Google Home, Amazon Alexa)
• Implement and validate Thread mesh networking for low-power, reliable fixture-to-fixture and fixture-to-hub communication in dense building environments
• Evaluate, prototype, and integrate additional wireless protocols (BLE 5.x, Zigbee, Z-Wave) as needed for third-party device interoperability and ecosystem expansion
• Architect hybrid connectivity strategies combining wireless protocols with powerline communication for maximum reliability in steel-framed commercial buildings and multi-unit residential facilities
• Work with the product team to ensure wireless implementations meet Connectivity Standards Alliance (CSA) certification requirements for Matter and Thread compliance
• Optimize wireless stack performance for power consumption, range, throughput, and coexistence

Hub / Gateway Platform Development:

• Develop and maintain embedded Linux software for ALLIE’s facility hub/gateway running on NVIDIA Jetson Orin Nano, Raspberry Pi, or similar SBC platforms
• Implement event ingestion and multi-fixture data fusion logic, aggregating alerts from up to 50 fixtures per facility, consolidating overlapping detections into single actionable events
• Build and optimize local ML inference pipelines on the hub using GPU-accelerated frameworks (NVIDIA TensorRT, CUDA) for advanced analytics that exceed fixture-level edge processing capabilities
• Design and implement a resilient local event queue with 24-hour offline buffering to ensure no data loss during cloud connectivity interruptions

Testing, validation & Reliability:

• Design and execute comprehensive testing and validation strategies for firmware and hardware integration
• Diagnose and resolve system-level issues related to timing, throughput, stability, and false alarm rates
• Develop Python-based tools for automated testing, data inspection, and integration workflows
• Support regulatory certification efforts (FCC Part 15.255, UL/ETL) by providing firmware-level test artifacts and compliance documentation

Collaboration & Architecture:

• Partner closely with AI/ML engineers to ensure firmware outputs are reliable and compatible with downstream ML models.
• Work with product managers to translate system and product requirements into firmware-level implementations
• Contribute to system architecture discussions with emphasis on scalability, maintainability, and the interplay between hardware and software development schedules
• Document firmware design decisions, configuration assumptions, and testing results to support a growing engineering team

Required Qualifications:

• Bachelor’s Degree in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, Computer Science, or a related technical field AND 3+ years of embedded firmware development experience, OR equivalent practical experience
• Strong proficiency in C and/or C++ for embedded systems development
• Hands-on experience working with MCUs or SoCs in real hardware environments (ESP32, STM32, or similar ARM-based platforms)
• Experience with vendor SDKs and development frameworks such as ESP-IDF, STM32 HAL/LL, or FreeRTOS
• Working experience with embedded communication protocols, including UART, SPI, and I2C
• Proficiency in Python for testing, automation, and integration tasks
• Ability to read and interpret datasheets, reference manuals, and hardware schematics
• Experience collaborating with cross-functional teams, including AI/ML engineers and product managers
• Strong problem-solving skills and ability to work independently in a fast-paced environment

Preferred Qualifications:

• Master’s Degree in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, or related field AND 3+ years of embedded systems experience OR Bachelor’s Degree AND 5+ years equivalent experience
• Experience with mmWave radar devices or similar RF sensing platforms
• Understanding of radar signal processing concepts: FMCW, range-FFT, Doppler-FFT, CFAR detection, point cloud generation, clustering, and tracking
• Experience integrating embedded firmware outputs with ML/AI pipelines and data processing workflows
• Familiarity with RTOS or bare-metal firmware development patterns
• Experience with secure embedded wireless communication using Wi-Fi 6, Thread, and Matter protocols for IoT interoperability
• Working knowledge of firmware flashing, bootloaders, and OTA update mechanisms
• Experience with powerline communication or non-standard embedded networking
• Linux-based development and cross-compilation experience
• Familiarity with ML/data processing libraries (NumPy, SciPy, PyTorch, TensorFlow) for testing and validation
• Prior experience in a startup or early-stage product environment where you wore multiple hats

Compensation and Work ArrangementThe base salary range will be commensurate with the candidate's experience and qualifications. Compensation may also include equity participation in our early-stage team.
Work Arrangement: Full-time position. Remote-friendly with regular collaboration across engineering and product teams. Periodic on-site work in Chicago may be required for hardware integration and testing milestones.
Visa Sponsorship: Arqaios welcomes international talent. We support candidates on STEM OPT, OPT, and H-1B visas, and we sponsor H-1B transfers and new petitions for qualified candidates.
What we offer:

• Ownership of critical firmware and hardware components in a real-world, award-winning product
• Direct collaboration with AI engineers, product leadership, and the founding team
• Opportunity to influence system architecture and technical direction from the ground floor
• Work on technically challenging problems at the intersection of radar, edge AI, and IoT
• Visa sponsorship (STEM OPT, OPT, H-1B)
• Growth opportunities as the product scales from pilots to commercial launch across multiple verticals