42dot
Sr. Staff Firmware Engineer (Secure Boot & OTA implementation)
$189K–$267K
Sunnyvale, United States · Senior Staff · Full-time · Posted Jun 19, 2026
- Experience
- 15+ years of firmware engineering.
- Education
- MS or PhD in Computer Engineering, Electrical Engineering, or a related field (preferred).
About the job
Implements and owns the secure boot chain and Uptane over-the-air update client for an ASIL-D automotive firmware platform, including hardware integration, verification, and certification evidence.
What you'll do
- Develop the multi-stage secure boot chain, protected key and anti-rollback functions, and fail-safe recovery.
- Implement A/B firmware updates and the Uptane client, including verification, flash staging, activation, rollback, and version reporting.
- Produce safety and certification evidence, validate hardware isolation, and lead target bring-up and engineering reviews.
What they ask for
- Expert-level C for bare-metal and RTOS targets; personally authored and shipped a bootloader on a Cortex-M or automotive MCU.
- Experience integrating cryptographic verification, key handling, anti-rollback, A/B or dual-bank activation, and recovery into boot or update paths.
- Authored ISO 26262, DO-178C, or IEC 61508 work products, including MISRA C, zero-deviation static analysis, structural-coverage testing, and traceability.
- Fluency with JTAG/SWD, logic analyzers, oscilloscopes, schematics, and register-level reference manuals.
Nice to have
- NXP S32K3 with HSE_B, FS26-class safety SBC integration, or Uptane/TUF-related open-source contributions.
- Experience with MCU delta updates, safety-certified RTOS, UDS, embedded middleware, automotive Ethernet, or fault-injection hardening.
Pay
$189,240 - $266,760 (base salary)
Tools
C, Python, NXP S32K3, Uptane, MISRA C, JTAG/SWD, RTOS, Bazel
Model-written summary · the original posting is authoritative