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Agent guide: [/agents.md](https://www.wearedevelopers.com/agents.md). --- # Embedded Software Engineer - **Company:** OnlyCat - **Location:** Cramlington, UK - **Experience:** Experienced - **Salary:** £33,000.0 - £60,000.0 - **Contract:** Permanent contract - **Skills:** ARM Architecture, Booting (BIOS), C++ (Programming Language), Software Quality, Encodings, Datasheets, Data Structures, Software Debugging, Programming Tools, Embedded Software, Firmware, FreeRTOS, Hypertext Transfer Protocols (HTTP), Machine Learning, Message Queuing Telemetry Transport (MQTT), Network Protocols, Real-Time Operating Systems, Tensorflow, Reduced Instruction Set Computing, SAP Sales and Distribution, TCP/IP, Universal Asynchronous Receiver/Transmitter, USB, Image Acquisition, Wi-Fi Technology, Transport Layer Security, Serial Peripheral Interface, Large Language Models, ONNX (Open Neural Network Exchange) Format, Machine Learning Operations, Aws Iot, Data Pipelines, Hardware Debugging - **Published:** June 4, 2026 - **Apply:** https://uk.indeed.com/viewjob?jk=531daf32255f01d0 ## About the Role Do you have experience in Embedded software?, * Strong professional experience writing embedded software in C and C++. * A solid understanding of low-level systems, including registers, interrupts, DMA, memory mapping, timing constraints, and peripheral configuration. * Practical experience with RTOS concepts such as tasks, queues, semaphores, mutexes, stack limits, scheduling, and resource ownership. * A clear commitment to writing clean, readable, maintainable, and testable code. * Comfort debugging physical hardware using tools such as oscilloscopes, logic analysers, serial consoles, and schematics. * A genuine passion for technology, embedded systems, and building products that work in the real world. * A collaborative, practical mindset suited to a fast-moving multidisciplinary startup. ## Description We are looking for a talented mid-level Embedded Software Engineer to take ownership of production firmware running on OnlyCat's custom dual-core RISC-V SoC platform. This role is ideal for an engineer who enjoys writing clean, maintainable C++ while staying close to the hardware. You should be comfortable working under real embedded constraints: limited memory, tight timing requirements, physical peripherals, camera pipelines, networking, storage, bootloaders, and the occasional stubborn prototype that only reveals its secrets under an oscilloscope. We actively encourage the use of modern development tools, including LLMs, to accelerate daily work. However, this is not a role for someone who treats generated code as magic. Our systems are resource-constrained and hardware-facing, so the successful candidate must understand the code at a first-principles level and be able to keep the final codebase clean, concise, stable, and maintainable. You will have meaningful ownership from day one and will help shape the embedded architecture of a product line with global potential. What You Will Work On - Core Firmware Development Develop and optimise production-grade C and C++ firmware for a dual-core, heterogeneous RISC-V SoC running FreeRTOS. - Communication Stack Maintain and expand firmware responsible for Wi-Fi connectivity, secure TCP/IP cloud communication, local e-paper UX rendering, SD/MMC storage, USB interfaces, and over-the-air update flows. - Vision and Inference Pipeline Work on high-speed camera capture, hardware-accelerated JPEG encoding, local NPU classification pipelines, and inter-core communication between processing domains. - Low-Level Peripheral Integration Configure, debug, and maintain interfaces including I2C, SPI, UART, USB, SD/MMC, GPIO, timers, DMA, and other SoC peripherals. - Embedded Architecture Design robust software abstractions suitable for constrained systems, using tools such as the Embedded Template Library to manage fixed-capacity data structures and avoid memory fragmentation. - Hardware Debugging Diagnose issues on real prototypes using oscilloscopes, logic analysers, serial consoles, datasheets, schematics, and careful reasoning, working closely with our lead electronics engineer and wider hardware team. - Product Reliability Help ensure firmware is stable, recoverable, testable, and suitable for real customers using the product every day in unpredictable home environments. What We Are Looking For You do not need to know every part of our stack already, but you should be a strong embedded engineer who enjoys learning quickly and solving difficult problems properly., * RISC-V architectures or custom compiler toolchains. * The Embedded Template Library or allocation-aware C++ development. * FreeRTOS on production devices. * Embedded networking protocols such as TCP/IP, Wi-Fi, HTTP, MQTT, TLS, or AWS IoT. * OTA bootloaders, secure update flows, or fail-safe firmware recovery. * Camera sensor interfaces, image capture, ISP pipelines, JPEG/MJPEG encoding, or image processing. * Deploying quantised machine learning models using TensorFlow Lite Micro, ONNX, or local NPUs. * STM32, Cortex-M, ESP32, or similar microcontroller platforms. * Consumer electronics, IoT products, or connected devices shipped to real users. * Working in small engineering teams where software, electronics, mechanics, and manufacturing overlap. Why Join OnlyCat? - Build Something Real This is not dashboard software or another abstract platform. You will write firmware that controls motors, sensors, cameras, radios, storage, displays, and machine learning pipelines inside a physical product used by real customers. - Work Close to the Hardware You will be based on-site with direct access to prototypes, lab equipment, mechanical engineers, electronics engineers, and product designers. Fast feedback loops matter here. - High-Impact Engineering As part of a small team, your work will have a visible impact on product performance, reliability, customer experience, and the future technical direction of the company. - Modern Tools, Serious Engineering We embrace modern development workflows, automation, and LLM-assisted productivity, while maintaining high standards for code quality, correctness, and technical ownership. - Startup Upside You will join at an exciting stage: early enough to make a major contribution, but with a product already in market, strong customer demand, rapid year-on-year growth, national media recognition, and clear market validation. ## Related Videos - [Building your way to a serverless powered IOT Buzzwire game](https://www.wearedevelopers.com/videos/590-building-your-way-to-a-serverless-powered-iot-buzzwire-game) - [Unleashing the Full Potential of the Arm Architecture – Write Once, Deploy Anywhere](https://www.wearedevelopers.com/videos/940-unleashing-the-full-potential-of-the-arm-architecture-write-once-deploy-anywhere) - [Prototyping with Hardware and the Web](https://www.wearedevelopers.com/videos/651-prototyping-with-hardware-and-the-web) - [An Applied Introduction to eBPF with Go](https://www.wearedevelopers.com/videos/1075-an-applied-introduction-to-ebpf-with-go) - [Shared mobility for everyone!](https://www.wearedevelopers.com/videos/64-shared-mobility-for-everyone) - [More efficient software for more efficient microchips](https://www.wearedevelopers.com/videos/1164-more-efficient-software-for-more-efficient-microchips) ## Related Articles - [Is Software Engineering Hard?](https://www.wearedevelopers.com/magazine/448-is-software-engineering-hard) - [Dev Digest 120 - Apple and peers](https://www.wearedevelopers.com/magazine/455-dev-digest-120-apple-and-peers) - [Where to Find Entry-Level Software Engineering Jobs](https://www.wearedevelopers.com/magazine/397-where-to-find-entry-level-software-engineering-jobs) - [How software is steering vehicle technology](https://www.wearedevelopers.com/magazine/515-how-software-is-steering-vehicle-technology) - [Dev Digest 118 - not a total recall](https://www.wearedevelopers.com/magazine/452-dev-digest-118-not-a-total-recall) - [What is Software Engineering?](https://www.wearedevelopers.com/magazine/289-what-is-software-engineering)