Hire senior embedded software engineers for firmware and devices
Senior embedded engineers who write firmware, drivers and embedded Linux software for connected devices, working with your hardware team on US hours.
By the Ryz Labs team · Updated October 2026
Hiring embedded software engineers through Ryz gets you senior engineers who are comfortable with a datasheet, a logic analyzer and tight memory budgets. They are in the top 1% of the engineers we interview, they work alongside your hardware and software teams, and they keep hours within an hour of US time zones.
What our embedded software engineers work on
Embedded work ranges from bare-metal microcontrollers to Linux-based devices. Our engineers write C and C++, and increasingly embedded Rust, on ARM Cortex-M, ESP32, STM32, Nordic nRF and NXP parts, using FreeRTOS, Zephyr, Yocto, Buildroot, and protocols like BLE, CAN, Modbus and MQTT. Common work:
- Firmware for connected devices: sensors, wearables, smart home products and industrial controllers.
- Device drivers and board support packages for new hardware revisions.
- Embedded Linux systems with Yocto or Buildroot, custom kernels and user-space services.
- Over-the-air update systems with secure boot, signed images and safe rollback.
- Communication stacks for BLE, Wi-Fi, cellular, CAN and Modbus, and cloud connectivity through MQTT to AWS IoT or Azure IoT.
- Low-power optimization for battery devices, and machine learning on microcontrollers with TensorFlow Lite Micro.
- Hardware-in-the-loop test rigs and CI pipelines for firmware.
Skills we vet for
- Embedded C and C++. Volatile and memory-mapped registers, fixed-size types, static allocation, and safe use of C++ without heap or exceptions.
- RTOS concepts. Tasks, priorities, scheduling, mutexes and semaphores, priority inversion, and stack sizing in FreeRTOS or Zephyr.
- Interrupts and timing. ISR design, latency, DMA, and sharing data safely between interrupts and tasks.
- Peripherals and buses. GPIO, UART, SPI, I2C, ADCs, timers and PWM, and reading datasheets and reference manuals.
- Embedded Linux. Device trees, kernel modules, cross-compilation, and Yocto layers and recipes.
- Debugging. JTAG and SWD with GDB, oscilloscopes and logic analyzers, fault handlers and crash dumps.
- Power and memory. Sleep modes, current measurement, flash and RAM budgets, and linker scripts.
- Security and reliability. Secure boot, firmware signing, watchdogs, and awareness of standards like MISRA C where products require them.
How we vet embedded software engineers
Recruiters look for engineers who have shipped firmware in real products, and they ask about the hardware, the toolchain and the bugs each person chased. ARC, our in-house system, ranks the pipeline. Candidates complete a structured NTRVSTA AI interview on low-level C, concurrency on microcontrollers and debugging approach. Recruiters review every candidate before and after the interview and send a curated shortlist. AI scores are advisory, and people make the decisions.
Sample interview topics
- A device locks up after several days in the field and the watchdog does not reset it. How do you investigate without a debugger attached?
- A high-priority task waits on a mutex held by a low-priority task, while a medium-priority task runs. Explain the problem and how an RTOS handles it.
- Data shared between an interrupt and the main loop is sometimes corrupted. What causes this, and how do you fix it without disabling interrupts for long?
- Design an over-the-air update scheme for a microcontroller with limited flash. How do you make sure a failed update never bricks the device?
- A battery device lasts half as long as planned. How do you measure where the current goes and reduce it?
Ways to hire embedded software engineers
| Option | Best for | Trade-offs |
|---|
| Freelance marketplace | A prototype on a dev board | Hardware access, product knowledge and continuity are hard to arrange with short gigs. |
| Staffing or recruiting agency | Hiring many engineering roles | Embedded resumes vary from hobby Arduino work to safety-critical firmware. Screening is often shallow. |
| In-house recruiting | Core firmware leads who own the platform | Senior embedded engineers are scarce, and searches often take months. |
| Ryz Labs staff augmentation | Adding senior embedded engineers to your existing hardware or device team | You lead architecture and hardware decisions. Best when dev boards and tooling can be shipped to the engineer. |
| Ryz Labs dedicated team | A defined firmware or device software project delivered by one team | A tech lead plus firmware and cloud engineers, scoped together with a plan. |
Ryz is not the right fit if you need someone in your lab every day for hands-on hardware bring-up, or if you need engineers in European or Asian time zones. If you want engineers employed on your own payroll, use an employer-of-record partner.
Why hire embedded software engineers from Latin America
Electronics and electrical engineering programs at universities across Latin America are strong, and the region has long-standing industrial, automotive, telecom and agricultural technology sectors. Many senior embedded engineers there have written firmware for products sold in the US, and they know how to work with remote hardware teams by shipping boards and sharing test rigs.
Firmware debugging often happens over a video call with someone holding the probe. Because our embedded engineers work within an hour of US time zones, they can do that live with your hardware team rather than across a day's delay. They work in English and use your tools, from schematics reviews to issue trackers.
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FAQ
How do remote embedded engineers work with our hardware?
Most clients ship development boards, test fixtures and measurement tools to the engineer. Remote debugging with JTAG probes and lab cameras covers much of the rest.
Do your embedded engineers work on safety-critical systems?
Some have experience with standards such as MISRA C and processes used in medical, automotive or industrial products. Tell us the requirements and we match on that experience.
What does it cost to hire embedded software engineers?
Custom quote, scoped per team. You get a plan, a price and the names of the people who would do the work before you sign.
Who do we sign with, and what hours do they keep?
You sign one contract with Ryz. Our engineers work with us as independent contractors, and we handle paying them. They keep hours within an hour of US time zones.
Questions we didn't answer? Email info@ryzlabs.com.