Staff Device Engineer

Alarm.com • Boston, MA

5h • Onsite

About The Position

Alarm.com is seeking an experienced and technically strong Embedded Firmware Engineer to join our Device Engineering team. This role is ideal for an engineer who thrives in hands‑on development while providing technical leadership across embedded platforms, third‑party device integrations, and firmware architecture modernization efforts.
As a Staff Engineer, you will own and evolve embedded firmware architectures running on resource‑constrained devices, with deep involvement in RTOS‑based systems such as Zephyr. You will be an individual contributor leading complex integrations with security panels, sensors, and third‑party devices, set technical direction for firmware platforms, and partner closely with Software Engineering, Quality Engineering, Product, and Project Management to deliver scalable, reliable, and secure products. You will also play a key role in advancing firmware automation and CI/CD pipelines across the organization.

Requirements

• 7-8 years of professional experience developing embedded firmware in C/C++ for production systems
• Deep, hands‑on experience designing and shipping RTOS‑based embedded systems (FreeRTOS, Zephyr, or equivalent)
• Strong understanding of embedded system architecture, including task scheduling, concurrency, memory management, timing constraints, and fault handling
• Extensive experience integrating third‑party hardware and vendor SDKs using common interfaces (UART, SPI, I2C, GPIO, etc.)
• Proven ability to debug complex issues using hardware and software tools (JTAG/SWD, logic analyzers, oscilloscopes, tracing, logging)
• Demonstrated ability to responsibly and effectively leverage AI‑assisted development tools to accelerate firmware design, debugging, documentation, and test development, while ensuring correctness, security, and maintainability through rigorous review and validation.
• Experience working across cross‑functional teams and influencing technical decisions beyond your immediate team
• Strong communication skills and the ability to provide technical leadership without formal people management responsibilities

Nice To Haves

• Experience leading firmware platform migrations or major architectural refactors
• Familiarity with embedded security concepts such as secure boot, firmware updates, key management, and device lifecycle management
• Experience with common communication protocols. Wireless technology familiarity is a plus (cellular, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, Z-Wave, Zigbee, etc).
• Experience designing or maintaining embedded firmware CI/CD pipelines, automation frameworks, or hardware‑in‑the‑loop systems
• Experience collaborating on hardware design, including schematic reviews, bring-up and low-power design is a plus.
• Exposure to low‑power design considerations for embedded or IoT devices
• Experience working in Agile or iterative product development environments

Responsibilities

• Lead the design, development, and long‑term maintenance of embedded firmware for connected security and IoT devices as an individual contributor.
• Own and evolve firmware architectures based on modern RTOS platforms (e.g., FreeRTOS, Zephyr), including task design, memory management, synchronization, and system reliability
• Drive complex integrations with third‑party devices such as security panels, sensors, and peripheral modules, setting best practices and technical standards
• Design and review device drivers, communication stacks, and application‑level firmware with an emphasis on scalability, performance, and maintainability
• Act as a technical leader and mentor for junior and mid‑level firmware engineers through design reviews, code reviews, and hands‑on guidance
• Partner closely with Software Engineering, Quality Engineering, Product, and Project Management to shape requirements, assess technical tradeoffs, and deliver features predictably
• Lead root‑cause analysis for complex system issues that span hardware, firmware, cloud, and mobile components
• Drive improvements to firmware automation, test infrastructure, and CI/CD pipelines, including build systems, automated testing, and hardware‑in‑the‑loop validation
• Champion firmware quality, security, documentation, and engineering best practices across the device organization
• Other duties as assigned

Benefits

• Our total rewards package is designed to support you holistically—in your health, your finances, and your life outside of work. The package includes medical plans with company subsidies, a Health Savings Account (HSA) with a company contribution, and a 401(k) with an employer match.
• We encourage a healthy work-life balance with paid vacation that increases with tenure, paid holidays, wellness time, and paid maternity and bonding leave.
• To complete the package, we also provide company-paid disability and life insurance, all within a collaborative and casual work environment.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Mid Level
• Education Level: No Education Listed