Firmware Engineer (IPS)

Company: ePropelled
Location: Coventry, UK
Level: Engineer or Senior Engineer, depending on experience and demonstrated capability
Reports to: UK Firmware Engineering Manager
Working arrangements: On Site at ePropelled’s Coventry office.
Status: Ready

ePropelled develops intelligent propulsion and power management systems for uncrewed vehicles operating in the air, on land and at sea. Its products combine electrical machines, power electronics and embedded control to deliver integrated propulsion and onboard power solutions.

We are looking for a Firmware Engineer to develop embedded firmware across ePropelled’s product lines. You will contribute to the successor to our Intelligent Power System (IPS), also referred to as a Power Management Unit (PMU), alongside work on motor controllers, peripheral devices and other embedded products as priorities require.

You will work closely with electronics, controls, software and systems engineers to turn requirements into reliable firmware. The work spans low-level drivers, real-time behaviour, hardware integration, communications, diagnostics, testing and support through product release. Your initial responsibilities will reflect your existing strengths and the needs of the projects.

Motor control is an important area for this role, and experience developing motor controller firmware would be particularly valuable. We also welcome candidates whose strongest experience is in sensors, peripherals, communications or other embedded control applications. You do not need to arrive with both specialisms. You should be willing to work across them and develop the knowledge needed to contribute beyond your current expertise.

Above all, we value a learning attitude supported by practical evidence: understanding unfamiliar hardware, asking useful questions, testing assumptions, responding to review and applying what you learn. This sits alongside a sound foundation in embedded firmware engineering. We will consider candidates at Engineer and Senior Engineer levels, with technical ownership matched to demonstrated capability.

·         Develop or extend motor controller firmware as assigned, working with controls and hardware colleagues on feedback, control execution, tuning and verification. The initial scope will reflect your experience and available technical support.[AJ1] [R2] 

·         Work with electronics engineers on board bring-up and hardware–firmware integration; investigate issues using embedded debuggers, oscilloscopes, logic analysers and recorded data.[AJ3] [R4] 

·         Develop and maintain embedded firmware in C including drivers, hardware abstraction layers and application logic.

·         Translate product and system requirements into firmware behaviour, interfaces and tests, working with colleagues to resolve ambiguities and technical trade-offs.

·         Implement real-time behaviour using interrupts, timers, and peripheral hardware with attention to timing, concurrency and resource constraints.

·         Contribute firmware for IPS power management, including sensing, operating states, communications, diagnostics and fault handling, according to the agreed system architecture.

·         Integrate sensors and peripheral devices, implement communications interfaces and support telemetry and real-time data acquisition across relevant products.

·         Implement appropriate protection responses, watchdogs, diagnostics and recovery behaviour, and verify operation under normal and fault conditions.[AJ5] [R6] 

·         Develop proportionate automated tests and regression checks; contribute to software-in-the-loop and hardware-in-the-loop testing where relevant.

·         Participate in code and design reviews, maintain clear technical documentation, and contribute to version control, automated builds and controlled firmware releases.

·         Investigate integration, production and field issues, and share findings and reusable improvements across the engineering team.

You will take responsibility for defined firmware features, drivers or integration activities within an agreed architecture. You should be able to progress routine development and debugging independently, explain your work in reviews and recognise when to seek support. Technical guidance will be needed when moving into unfamiliar areas, particularly motor control algorithms or complex power management behaviour. You will be supported by a team of fellow firmware engineers including Senior Engineers and Engineering Managers.

You will independently own substantial firmware functionality or a defined embedded subsystem from requirements through verification and release. You should have evidence of delivering firmware into production or operational use, resolving difficult integration issues and making justified decisions about timing, reliability, maintainability and hardware interfaces.

You will help shape the architecture for your scope, lead technical reviews and support other engineers through review and knowledge sharing. You will also help shape the team’s processes and practices. Seniority does not require prior expertise in every product domain, but it does require sound judgement about the limits of your knowledge and when specialist input is needed. This is a hands-on technical role; line management is not assumed.

The following would be advantageous. Motor control experience is particularly relevant, but candidates are not expected to have all of these skills.

·         Motor control[TD3] [R4] : BLDC [TD5] or PMSM [TD6] [R7] drives, field-oriented control (FOC), trapezoidal control, PWM generation, synchronised current sampling, encoder or other feedback systems, and practical tuning and diagnostics.

·         Power management: Firmware for power converters, battery charging, power-source management or generator interfaces, including sensing, operating states and protection.

·         Sensors and peripherals: Drivers and integration for devices such as IMUs, GPS/GNSS receivers, range sensors or other measurement and peripheral hardware.

·         Platforms and real-time systems: STM32, Texas Instruments, NXP or comparable MCUs; RTOS task design, synchronisation and timing analysis; embedded C++.

·         Communications: CAN/CAN FD, UART, SPI, I²C or Ethernet, including protocol implementation, telemetry and integration between devices.

·         Quality and automation: MISRA C or comparable coding guidelines, static analysis, Python or similar scripting, automated build and test pipelines, and software-in-the-loop or hardware-in-the-loop testing.

·         Product delivery: Bootloaders, firmware update and recovery mechanisms, release management, production test or investigation of field issues.

·         Application context: Uncrewed vehicles, robotics or other products combining embedded control, electronics and demanding operating conditions.

·         C++: Experience in embedded C++ would be useful but not essential.

You should be able to demonstrate:

·         Practical experience developing and debugging firmware in C for microcontroller-based systems, with an understanding of memory, data representation and resource constraints.

·         Experience working close to hardware, such as developing drivers, configuring MCU peripherals or bringing up an embedded board. You should be able to use datasheets and schematics to investigate behaviour.

·         Understanding of real-time firmware, including interrupts, timing and shared data. Experience may come from bare-metal systems, RTOS-based systems or both.

·         Hands-on experience in at least one relevant area: motor control or another timing-critical embedded[TD1] [R2]  control application; or sensor, peripheral, communications and data acquisition firmware. You should be able to explain your contribution, design decisions and how you verified the result.

·         Experience implementing and debugging embedded communications interfaces, with depth in interfaces relevant to your previous work rather than every protocol listed below.

·         A systematic approach to troubleshooting, including forming and testing explanations, using measurements and distinguishing hardware, firmware and integration issues.

·         An approach to firmware quality that includes readable code, version control, review and testing appropriate to the product and your level of responsibility.

·         Evidence of learning unfamiliar technologies or domains and applying that learning in working firmware. Be prepared to discuss what you needed to learn, how you approached it and what changed as a result.

·         Clear technical communication, willingness to seek and use feedback, and the ability to work constructively across engineering disciplines.

A relevant degree in electronic engineering, embedded systems, computer engineering, mechatronics, robotics, physical or mathematical sciences, or equivalent practical experience, is appropriate. Assessment will focus on capability, engineering judgement and ability to learn rather than a fixed number of years or a particular qualification route.