Sr Software Engineer – Tamper Protection

Our client is a leading advanced technology and applied research organisation focused on autonomous systems, robotics, AI, embedded software, cybersecurity, and aerospace technologies. They develop advanced UAV and UxV platforms, mission computing solutions, autonomous vehicle technologies, and secure mission-critical systems, working at the forefront of innovation alongside some of the world's leading engineers and researchers.

We're looking for a Senior Software Engineer with expertise in embedded security and real-time firmware to develop software for a hardware tamper-detection system that protects cryptographic assets and mission-critical platforms.

You'll design and maintain embedded firmware for ARM Cortex-M devices, build secure boot and tamper-response capabilities, develop sensor acquisition and signal processing algorithms, and work closely with hardware, security, and systems teams to deliver secure, production-ready solutions.

Key Responsibilities

Embedded Security Firmware

• Develop real-time embedded firmware in C/C++ for ARM Cortex-M MCUs using Zephyr RTOS.
• Implement secure boot, signed firmware, and secure update mechanisms.
• Develop on-device cryptographic key management, secure storage, and key zeroization.
• Build tamper-response features including event logging, anti-rollback, secure debug, and lifecycle management.

Sensor Processing

• Design sensor acquisition pipelines, ADC interfaces, and embedded drivers.
• Develop DSP algorithms including digital filtering, spectral analysis, and feature extraction.
• Build and optimize tamper detection algorithms to distinguish genuine threats from environmental noise.
• Support data collection, testing, and performance validation.

Platform Integration

• Perform BSP integration and platform bring-up on NXP and NVIDIA-based platforms.
• Integrate firmware with host systems over UART, SPI, I2C, CAN, and network interfaces.
• Collaborate with hardware, FPGA, security, and systems teams on end-to-end integration.

Security & Quality

• Contribute to threat modeling, secure coding, and vulnerability assessments.
• Support compliance with ISO/IEC 19790, FIPS 140, and Common Criteria.
• Support manufacturing security processes including provisioning, secure flashing, and root-of-trust implementation.
• Deliver high-quality firmware through CI/CD, automated testing, HIL testing, code reviews, and technical documentation.
• Mentor junior engineers and contribute to design reviews and Agile ceremonies.

Required Experience & Technical Skills

Embedded Software

• 5–8 years of embedded software development delivering production firmware.
• Strong C/C++ development on ARM Cortex-M microcontrollers.
• Experience with Zephyr RTOS or similar RTOS (FreeRTOS, ThreadX).
• Strong understanding of real-time systems, interrupts, and memory-constrained development.

Signal Processing

• Experience with ADC interfacing, digital filtering, spectral analysis, feature extraction, and event detection.
• Experience developing algorithms that minimize false positives in noisy environments.
• Edge ML experience is advantageous.

Embedded Security

• Experience with secure boot, signed firmware, secure updates, hardware root of trust, TEE concepts, key provisioning, encrypted communications, anti-rollback, and secure debug.

Platform & Integration

• Experience with BSP integration, platform bring-up, boot validation, driver integration, and debugging on NXP and/or NVIDIA platforms.
• Familiarity with Linux and Yocto for host-side integration.
• Experience integrating UART, SPI, I2C, CAN, and networking interfaces.
• Knowledge of low-power embedded design and battery-backed systems.

Development Tools

• Experience with Git, CI/CD pipelines, automated testing, and Hardware-in-the-Loop (HIL) testing.
• Docker experience is a plus.

Security & Compliance

• Knowledge of secure development practices, threat modeling, and vulnerability assessments.
• Familiarity with ISO/IEC 19790, FIPS 140, Common Criteria, IEC 62443, or similar security standards.

Core Competencies

• Strong analytical and problem-solving skills.
• Excellent communication and cross-functional collaboration.
• Ability to mentor engineers and work independently.
• Comfortable working in fast-paced, security-critical environments.

Education

• Bachelor's or Master's degree in Electrical Engineering, Electronic Engineering, Computer Science, Embedded Systems, or a related field.

Nice to Have

• Experience with flight-controller technologies such as PX4 or MAVLink.
• Contributions to open-source embedded or security projects (e.g. Zephyr, MCUboot).