Cisco
Firmware Architect & Subsystem Technical Leader, Acacia
$192K–$356K
Maynard, Massachusetts, US · Onsite Only · Full-time · Posted Oct 21, 2026
- Experience
- 12+ years of professional experience, including 10+ years in embedded C/C++ and 8+ years in real-time embedded firmware.
- Education
- Bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering, Electronics Engineering, Computer Engineering, Computer Science, or related field.
About the job
Leads firmware architecture and development for embedded software that configures, manages, and optimizes Acacia optical transceiver subsystems and future SoC architectures.
What you'll do
- Lead architecture, design, and implementation of reliable, low-latency firmware for multicore microcontrollers.
- Co-design hardware/software interfaces with ASIC, DSP, optical, and hardware teams; develop BSPs, drivers, and real-time control-plane software.
- Set firmware engineering standards, mentor engineers, and provide technical leadership across the organization.
What they ask for
- Bachelor’s degree in a related field and 12+ years of professional experience.
- 10+ years of low-level embedded C and C++ programming for resource-constrained hardware.
- 8+ years developing real-time embedded firmware on bare-metal systems and RTOS platforms.
- Experience with ARM processors/microcontrollers, BSPs, device drivers, and hardware peripheral interfaces.
Nice to have
- Firmware architecture experience with optical transceivers, high-speed mixed-signal ICs, photonics, or telecommunications transmission hardware.
- Experience leading firmware projects and collaborating across ASIC, DSP, hardware, and SQA teams.
Pay
$192,400.00 to $275,800.00 USD base salary; $214,100.00 - $356,300.00 USD base salary; $192,400.00 - $317,200.00 USD base salary
Tools
C, C++, ARM Cortex-M, ARM Cortex-R, VxWorks, FreeRTOS, ThreadX, Python
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