Principal Embedded Engineer

An established engineering organisation is looking for a Principal Embedded Engineer to provide technical leadership and help shape the development of its embedded software and firmware capability.

This is a senior technical leadership position combining hands-on embedded engineering with strategic direction, giving you the opportunity to establish engineering processes, develop technical capability, mentor engineers, and provide technical authority across a range of complex embedded systems.

You will lead the development and growth of an embedded engineering capability spanning microcontrollers, SoCs, FPGAs, embedded software and firmware.

Key responsibilities will include:

Providing technical leadership, governance and oversight across embedded development activities

Establishing and improving engineering processes, workflows and best practices

Leading the development of reusable software modules and libraries

Planning and delivering embedded software and firmware work packages

Translating system and customer requirements into clear software and firmware specifications

Developing system and software architectures and overseeing detailed design

Defining verification strategies, validation plans and test procedures

Ensuring traceability between requirements, design and verification

Producing high-quality technical documentation and engineering reports

Ensuring deliverables meet required quality, compliance and safety standards

Supporting estimates, bids, proposals and engineering change activities

Working closely with hardware, software and systems engineering teams

Supporting the integration of embedded software and hardware platforms

Mentoring and developing engineers across different levels of experience

Supporting recruitment, onboarding and the management of internal engineers and specialist contractors

Required Experience & Skills

HNC/HND or degree in Electrical/Electronic Engineering, Computer Engineering or a related discipline, or equivalent practical experience

Extensive experience working with microcontrollers, SoCs, FPGA-based systems and embedded software

Strong embedded C/C++ development experience

Experience defining and implementing engineering processes

Ability to develop specifications, architectures, verification strategies and test procedures

Experience providing technical leadership and mentoring engineers

Strong understanding of current embedded, microcontroller, SoC and FPGA technologies

Ability to make appropriate technology selections based on requirements, risk, cost and timescales

Desirable Experience

Hardware Description Languages, particularly VHDL

FPGA simulation and verification tools

Experience delivering safety-related systems or working to standards such as SIL or ASIL

Experience working across both hardware and embedded software development

Experience developing reusable engineering frameworks, libraries or platforms

This is an excellent opportunity for an experienced embedded engineer to take a significant technical leadership position, helping to shape embedded engineering capability, processes and technical direction while remaining closely involved in the development of complex embedded systems.

Due to the nature of the projects involved, the successful candidate must be eligible to obtain and maintain UK Security Clearance at SC level.

TT