Senior Embedded Linux Engineer

A successful UK startup company is looking for their next Senior Embedded Engineer! They are an ambitious, venture-backed UK startup pioneering a breakthrough AI accelerator for data centers which uses 3D optical compute. After being founded in 2022, they have already secured over £15 million in investment and are currently scalding rapidly to deploy the fastest optical compute currently available globally. The role: Ensure the software at the lowest level of the stack runs reliably through building the firmware, drivers, and RTOS-based control software that bring our AI accelerator to life - from initial power-on through to stable, performant operation in production systems. Day to Day: Develop and maintain device drivers for the AI accelerator, targeting Linux kernel and bare-metal environments Write and debug firmware for control and management processors alongside the main accelerator die Lead BSP bring-up for new hardware revisions: clock tree configuration, interrupt routing, peripheral initialisation Implement RTOS-based control tasks using FreeRTOS or equivalent, ensuring deterministic scheduling and safe resource management Work with hardware engineers to validate bring-up through JTAG debugging, oscilloscope analysis, and logic capture Establish coding standards, review practices, and testing methodology for the embedded team

5+ years of embedded software experience with C/C++ in production hardware products Proven experience writing Linux device drivers (character, platform, or PCIe drivers) Hands-on BSP bring-up experience on custom hardware - from schematic review to first OS boot Solid understanding of RTOS concepts: task scheduling, inter-task communication, memory protection Proficiency with hardware debug tools: JTAG/SWD debuggers, oscilloscopes, logic analysers