Hardware Firmware Engineer
📌Centurion, South Africa 🇿🇦
⏱︎ full-time
🧙♂️ senior
Recruiter:
Network Recruitment
Job Ref:
NES022185/CM
Date posted:
Monday, July 7, 2025
Location:
Centurion, South Africa
SUMMARY:
We are recruiting on behalf of a leading South African defence and security company that is currently seeking an experienced Hardware Firmware Design Engineer to join their Hardware Engineering Group. This role will play a key part in the development of firmware and high-speed digital hardware systems, including FPGAs and SoC-based platforms.
POSITION INFO:
Key Responsibilities:
- Develop reusable HDL building blocks based on VHDL and industry standards.
- Design high-speed digital hardware using FPGA SoCs (Xilinx, Microsemi, Intel/Altera).
- Create test environments using tools such as ModelSim or QuestaSim.
- Document development lifecycle: requirements, design, and testing.
- Manage version control and configuration using GIT.
-
Collaborate with project management on timelines and progress.
- Interfaces: CAN, PCIe, Gigabit Ethernet, DDR Memory, Fibre.
- Tools: Vivado, LiberoSoC, Quartus Prime, HDL Designer, HyperLynx, Mentor Designer, LTSpice, DOORS.
- Firmware Focus Areas (Advantageous):
- Radar and electronic warfare systems
- High-speed A2D interfacing
- Xilinx RFSoC
-
EMI design concepts
Minimum Requirements:
- Qualification: B.Eng. Degree in Electronics (Honours or Masters advantageous)
- 5+ years of practical experience in firmware/hardware design
- Proficient in VHDL coding and HDL-based development
- Demonstrated experience in FPGA-based hardware design and integration
-
Strong capability in test, debug, and hardware bring-up
- Self-reliant and proactive with strong leadership potential
- Strong interpersonal and collaboration skills
- Excellent written and verbal communication
- Analytical thinker with a strong problem-solving ability
-
Ability to prioritise tasks and meet tight deadlines
Senior Embedded Software Engineer
@ Embedd 
What we're looking for
At embedd.it, we power hardware-software integration in embedded devices. We turn fragmented semiconductor chip data into configurable digital twins, then deterministically generate code, tests, and documentation – making integration faster, cheaper, and resilient to supply chain shocks.
We’re looking for a true legend – someone with abstract thinking and deep expertise in low-level software development. You’ll build vendor-agnostic tooling for MCU and peripheral integration to solve hardware-software integration once and for all. We work at the intersection of embedded systems, code generation, compilers, and machine learning. It’s your chance to help redefine how low-level development is done.
Responsibilities
- Drive the architecture of the driver structures and system layout
- Define scalable patterns for cross-architectural integration across bare-metal, Zephyr, Linux, and other environments
- Deconstruct complex SoC device trees and translate hardware descriptions into structured internal models for automated reasoning
- Partner with the ML team to shape data and annotation models for AI-driven data-extraction tooling
Qualifications
- 5+ years of experience in embedded systems development, including bare-metal and RTOS-based systems
- Proficiency in C/C++
- Familiarity with firmware configuration, SoC bring-up, and system-level debugging
- Hands-on experience with code generation tools, or low-level compiler/decompiler/emulator technologies
- Strong background in embedded toolchains: compilers, linkers, debuggers, and build systems
- Python or scripting for automation and tooling is a plus
- Experience with functional-safety standards is a plus
Why embedd.it?
- Dynamic, venture-backed team of engineers challenging the status quo 🚀
- Work at the intersection of embedded systems, code generators, compilers, and ML 🤖
- Unusual challenges requiring out-of-the-box abstract thinking 🧠
- Competitive compensation: cash + equity 💰
- Remote work possible 🌍
About Us
embedd.it is a UK-based startup reinventing embedded development. Our platform transforms unstructured semiconductor data into structured digital twins, enabling automatic generation of drivers, tests, and documentation. We're building a single, traceable source of truth to make integration fast, vendor-agnostic, and future-proof.
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