Senior Firmware Engineer, Platform at ALSO
Palo Alto, CA
$160,000–$210,000from the description
Jun 29, 2026
Palo Alto, CA
Jul 21, 2026
What this job asks for AI summary
A platform firmware engineering role at a small EV startup, focused on building and owning the foundational software layers that underpin all vehicle products. Day-to-day work spans hardware abstraction layers, peripheral driver development, RTOS integration, Bazel-based build infrastructure, and CI/CD pipelines. The role suits an embedded software engineer with at least four years of platform or BSP experience and strong C/C++ skills.
Senior level · 4+ years · San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA · Bachelor's required · Full-time
“or” means any one of them counts — you don't need all of them.
We read this from the posting text with AI. Skim the description below before ruling yourself out.
How this req sits in the market our data
Roughly 120 people in the San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA area plausibly meet what this posting asks for (software developers). range 45–220
Applicant volume Light — Few people clear these requirements, so an application that does clear them gets looked at. Worth applying to even if you miss a nice-to-have.
Rare in this occupation — lead with these, and say what you built with them.
Most people in this occupation already list these. Still required — just not what gets you shortlisted.
What the occupation pays Median $217,796 (middle half $177,469–$231,052). This posting is about at that midpoint.
Estimated from BLS employment for this occupation and area, per-skill prevalence across our listing corpus, and published wage benchmarks — as of Jul 28, 2026. It is a model, not a headcount.
Why we read it this way (6)
The job title carries no seniority level; the role is assessed as Senior based on 4+ years required, end-to-end ownership of platform firmware, and architectural decision-making responsibilities.
The degree requirement states 'BS in an engineering discipline, preferably Computer Science or Electrical Engineering' — a Bachelor's is explicitly required; the 'preferably' applies only to the field of study, not to the degree itself.
Bootloader development/secure boot/OTA and HIL testing appear in the requirements section but are introduced with 'Familiarity with' and 'Experience with' respectively — these read as softer gates relative to the firmly stated core requirements, so they are marked preferred.
CAN-FD, GPIO, DMA, timers, and ADC/DAC are listed alongside CAN as MCU peripheral experience; CAN is used as the representative skill for the peripheral driver requirement to avoid excessive fragmentation.
Toolchain management (GCC/LLVM for ARM, linker scripts, startup code, debugging tools) is listed under requirements with 'Some experience with' — a deliberate softening qualifier — so GCC/JTAG are retained as required but the softer framing is noted here.
Ignored 1 non-technology phrase(s) as skills (responsibilities/concepts, not named tools): bootloader development.
Read the full posting
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