Senior Project Engineer

Role Purpose

We are looking for a hands-on Lead Firmware Engineer to lead and grow the Embedded Hardware and Embedded Firmware teams, taking end-to-end responsibility for the technical direction, architecture, execution quality, and delivery of embedded electronics used in industrial drives, servo inverters, frequency inverters, and motion and safety products.

This is not a pure people-management role. The successful candidate will actively contribute to architecture, design and code reviews, design and coding where needed, technical problem-solving, and critical debugging, while mentoring engineers, aligning teams, and ensuring disciplined engineering practices.

Location: Pune, Maharashtra, India
Employment: Full-time
Openings: 1
Experience: 9–12+ years
Products: Servo drives, VFDs, motion controllers, and safety drives

Key Interfaces

Controls, Mechanical, System Architecture, Manufacturing, Quality, Cybersecurity, and Functional Safety.

Key Responsibilities

Technical Leadership and Architecture Ownership

• Own the overall embedded electronics architecture, including:
  • MCU/SoC hardware design
  • Firmware architecture covering boot, RTOS, drivers, middleware, and communications
  • Hardware–firmware partitioning and interfaces
• Define technology roadmaps for microcontrollers/SoCs, power management, embedded hardware platforms, firmware frameworks, RTOS platforms, and toolchains.
• Make design decisions balancing performance, cost, reliability, cybersecurity, and manufacturability.
• Act as the technical escalation point for complex hardware–firmware–system issues.

Hands-on Engineering Contribution

• Participate in hardware architecture, schematic, and PCB layout reviews, including SI/PI and EMC considerations.
• Contribute to firmware architecture discussions, code reviews, and critical module design.
• Support hardware bring-up and early prototype debugging involving power-up, clocks, resets, and interfaces.
• Perform joint hardware–firmware debugging using oscilloscopes, logic analyzers, JTAG, and SWD.
• Guide root-cause analysis of field, EMC, reliability, and performance issues.
• Challenge technical assumptions and contribute directly rather than only coordinating tasks.

Embedded Hardware Leadership

• Guide embedded schematic design covering MCU/SoC interfaces, analog front ends, protection, and monitoring.
• Lead power supply architecture involving DC/DC converters, LDOs, sequencing, and supervision.
• Oversee component selection, derating, reliability, and lifecycle management.
• Ensure robust EMC/EMI-aware design and troubleshooting practices.
• Collaborate with PCB layout, EMS manufacturing, and test teams.
• Oversee electrical, functional, and environmental hardware verification.

Embedded Firmware Leadership

• Lead development of low-level drivers, peripherals, real-time firmware, RTOS/bare-metal systems, bootloaders, and firmware update mechanisms.
• Guide communication stack implementation for EtherCAT, CAN, PROFINET, IO-Link, and related industrial protocols.
• Guide secure boot, cryptography, key management, secure firmware updates, and rollback strategies.
• Ensure compliance with secure development practices and cybersecurity requirements such as IEC 62443.
• Promote modular, testable, maintainable software engineering practices.

Cross-Functional System Ownership

• Work closely with controls engineers on PWM, ADC timing, and real-time constraints.
• Collaborate with system architects on partitioning and performance budgets.
• Align hardware, firmware, and system requirements, interfaces, and verification with functional safety and cybersecurity stakeholders.
• Support certifications, audits, and customer escalations as required.

Team Leadership and People Development

• Lead, mentor, and technically coach hardware and firmware engineers.
• Build a high-performance engineering culture focused on design reviews, knowledge sharing, engineering discipline, and quality.
• Support hiring, onboarding, and capability development.
• Balance delivery pressure with long-term technical excellence.

Process, Quality, and Execution Excellence

• Establish and enforce structured development processes, configuration and change management, documentation, and traceability.
• Drive best practices in design reviews, verification planning, and CI concepts for firmware and hardware verification.
• Ensure readiness for industrialization and series production.

Required Qualifications and Experience

• Bachelor’s or master’s degree in Electrical Engineering, Electronics, Computer Engineering, Mechatronics, or a closely related discipline.
• 9–12+ years of embedded systems development experience.
• Strong background in both embedded firmware and hardware; candidates with approximately 70% firmware and 30% hardware strength may also be considered.
• Candidates with less than 1.5 years in a Technical Manager role, or recently promoted into such a role, who remain hands-on are preferred.
• Candidates currently working as System Architects or Technical Leads and technically managing teams of approximately 4–6 engineers are also suitable.
• Experience collaborating with European or US customers and stakeholders on requirements, design, and delivery.
• Experience with industrial electronics, preferably servo drives, frequency inverters, motion systems, or power electronics products.

Mandatory Technical Skills

Embedded Hardware

• MCU/SoC hardware design
• Analog and digital circuits
• Power management and sequencing
• PCB design flows and layout reviews
• EMC/EMI fundamentals and debugging
• Hands-on laboratory experience with oscilloscopes, logic analyzers, and power analysis equipment

Embedded Firmware

• Strong embedded C expertise
• Real-time firmware development using RTOS or bare metal
• Debugging with JTAG, SWD, and trace tools
• Bootloader and firmware update concepts
• Industrial communication interfaces

System and Integration

• Ability to reason across hardware, firmware, timing, power, and system constraints
• Strong debugging and root-cause analysis skills

Desirable Skills

• EtherCAT, CAN, PROFINET, EtherNet/IP, or IO-Link
• Motor control or drive systems
• Cybersecurity, including secure boot, cryptography, and IEC 62443
• Functional safety exposure in SIL2/SIL3 environments
• Automated testing, scripting, or CI concepts

Behavioral and Leadership Expectations

• Strong technical credibility and respect among engineers
• Structured and analytical problem-solving approach
• Ability to lead through influence rather than hierarchy alone
• Clear communication with technical and nontechnical stakeholders
• Proactive, ownership-driven, and quality-oriented mindset
• Comfort working in agile and evolving environments