Director, Firmware Architecture & Delivery

Description

The company designs and builds consumer lifestyle products that reach shoppers through major stores, online shops, and distributors across the globe. It sells under two well-known brands, has entered several product categories, and has grown its market share. Headquartered in Needham, Massachusetts, it employs more than 4,100 associates.

The company works in an AI-first way. Staff are expected to test bold ideas, pick up new tools, and keep pushing what is achievable for customers. The culture suits people who believe better ways of doing their work have yet to be found.

This is a senior, US-based firmware role with two sides. You set the technical direction and architecture for firmware across the company's global product lines, and you run delivery of that firmware for every product.

On the architecture side, you define interfaces, hardware abstraction standards, and engineering practices. Every firmware program, whether built in-house or by partners, is measured against them so quality and consistency hold.

On the delivery side, you lead the US firmware group, which manages embedded firmware created internally and by external vendors across the full product range.

This role sits level with the Connected Firmware director, who handles connected embedded architecture and delivery. You also work with the Embedded Firmware director in Asia on firmware delivered in that region.

Responsibilities

• Set firmware architecture, interfaces, and hardware abstraction (HAL/API) standards for every product category worldwide.
• Define standards for real-time operating systems, connectivity frameworks, device intelligence, and edge processing.
• Make technical calls with Hardware Engineering on microcontrollers and processors, wireless and display technologies, and software stacks.
• Reuse proven in-house code, vendor SDKs, and reference designs to meet speed-to-market goals. Keep in-house work for areas that set the company apart, such as safety, security, and IP.
• Turn the architecture into firm requirements that partners can build to without guesswork.
• Write and maintain engineering rules for internal teams and third-party suppliers, covering source control, build systems, branching and merging, and release criteria.
• Put technical requirements into supplier agreements, including pre-production reproducibility: source code, toolchain, and a signed build manifest that lets anyone rebuild shipping binaries.
• Set design reviews and gates that partner deliverables must pass before integration.
• Work with Systems Engineering and NPD to define product operation, key components, and critical firmware behavior early, closing hardware and software gaps before integration.
• Own delivery of internal firmware on schedule, quality, and scope.
• Lead the US embedded firmware team, growing its skills, capacity, and senior technical depth.
• Make sure firmware works cleanly with hardware, cloud services, mobile apps, and user interfaces.
• Work with other global firmware leaders on programs across all sites and shared platform work.
• Build the embedded test automation framework: CI pipelines, static analysis tools, and test harnesses that make regression testing repeatable across categories.
• Own embedded Bitbucket integration, headless build requirements, and per-commit code quality checks across internal and supplier repositories.
• Build the mechanisms that quality gates run on. Embedded QA & Governance sets acceptance criteria and holds gate authority.
• Lead a senior technical team across architecture and delivery, including direct work with ODM and JDM partners.
• Grow technical leaders and strengthen architect and engineering career paths within Firmware Engineering.
• Advise on partner capability reviews and consolidation decisions.
• Report technical direction, delivery progress, and risk to Firmware and EE executive leadership.

Requirements

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Computer Science, or a related field.
• Master's degree preferred.
• 12+ years of embedded software and firmware engineering.
• 5+ years leading engineering teams, including managing senior engineers and managers directly.
• A record of owning both technical standards and delivery, and keeping standards intact when schedules are tight.
• Experience defining architecture that ODM/JDM partners build, and enforcing standards on outsourced work.
• A proven record setting up CI/CD, static analysis, and automated test infrastructure for embedded programs.
• Experience building firmware for consumer electronics, home appliances, robotics, IoT devices, or similar high-volume industries.
• Embedded firmware architecture, HAL/API design, and platform reuse.
• Real-time operating systems (RTOS).
• OTA software update architecture.
• Build systems and toolchains (gcc, CMake, headless builds), Git-based source control, and static analysis.
• Test automation frameworks and hardware-in-the-loop validation.
• Writing requirements, running design reviews, and setting acceptance criteria for outsourced development.
• Hardware-software integration and product bring-up.
• Strength in technology leadership, standards and governance discipline, delivery execution and accountability, vendor and partner technical management, cross-functional influence, talent development, and executive communication.

Conditions

Annual salary range: $220,000 - $250,000 USD. Starting pay within this range depends on factors such as geography or market, skills, education, experience, and other qualifications.

The company values an outrageously extraordinary mindset: aiming for goals others call impossible and delivering results. It suits people who like working outside their usual lane.

The company is committed to diversity, equity, and inclusion.

Benefits

• Subject to eligibility, benefits include medical, dental, and vision insurance; flexible spending accounts; an HSA with company contribution; a 401(k) with matching; an employee stock purchase program; life insurance, AD&D, and short- and long-term disability insurance; generous paid time off; company holidays; parental leave; identity theft protection; pet insurance; pre-paid legal insurance; back-up child and eldercare days; product discounts; a referral bonus program; and more.
• Wellness programs and learning programs that support personal and professional growth, led by speakers pushing industry thinking forward.