Software & Firmware Engineering Expert
Listing checked September 26, 2026 · pay as published by Mercor
Overview
Mercor needs experienced software and firmware engineers for an advanced engineering and AI research initiative with a leading technology organization. The work centers on systems that touch real hardware, so the team values engineers who have designed, integrated, tested, debugged, or validated embedded firmware, FPGA/RTL, flight software, or hardware test automation. You will review complex physical products and bring practical engineering judgment to embedded systems, digital hardware, and real-world debugging workflows. Mercor pays hourly, and the work happens remotely.
What You'll Do8
- 1Apply hands-on software, firmware, and digital hardware expertise to complex engineering tasks tied to physical systems.
- 2Review embedded firmware, FPGA/RTL designs, flight software, test automation frameworks, hardware interfaces, and system-level workflows.
- 3Analyze trade-offs around real-time performance, timing, memory, compute limits, interfaces, reliability, fault handling, concurrency, and hardware/software integration.
- 4Assess technical correctness, reliability, and practical feasibility of engineering solutions for hardware-connected systems.
- 5Find implementation errors, incorrect assumptions, race conditions, timing faults, interface failures, resource constraints, and other system-level failure modes.
- 6Develop or review engineering problems, reference implementations, test cases, evaluation criteria, and technical documentation.
- 7Draw on practical experience in development, integration, hardware bring-up, debugging, verification, validation, test automation, and deployment.
- 8Give clear technical feedback rooted in production hardware constraints and real-world engineering experience.
Requirements9
- 1At least 5 years of professional software, firmware, FPGA, or embedded systems engineering experience.
- 2At least 3 recent years of active hands-on work developing, integrating, testing, bringing up, or troubleshooting software or firmware on real hardware.
- 3Experience as the responsible engineer for production hardware-connected software or firmware, with ownership from requirements and architecture through implementation, integration, hardware bring-up, verification, validation, debugging, and deployment.
- 4Deep technical skill in at least one core domain: embedded firmware and real-time systems, FPGA/RTL design and verification, flight software and safety/mission-critical systems, or hardware test automation and hardware-in-the-loop infrastructure.
- 5Practical command of relevant technologies such as C/C++, Python, RTOS or bare-metal development, device drivers, bootloaders, embedded Linux, SPI/I2C/UART/CAN/Ethernet, Verilog/SystemVerilog/VHDL, FPGA toolchains, hardware interfaces, telemetry, and automated test systems.
- 6Hands-on experience debugging software-hardware interactions and physical systems with JTAG/SWD debuggers, logic analyzers, oscilloscopes, hardware simulators or emulators, HIL/SIL environments, automated test equipment, CI infrastructure, and structured root-cause analysis.
- 7Proven work in real-world product or hardware manufacturing settings, in aerospace/defense, space, automotive/EV, semiconductors, consumer electronics, robotics/eVTOL, industrial/energy, or medical devices.
- 8Ability to explain architectural decisions, implementation trade-offs, test results, and failure mechanisms.
- 9Preferred: experience at a company that designs, builds, tests, and manufactures physical hardware or embedded systems. Examples include aerospace and defense (Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, RTX, Boeing, General Atomics, L3Harris, BAE Systems, General Dynamics, Honeywell Aerospace, Textron), space (Blue Origin, Rocket Lab, Relativity Space, Firefly Aerospace, Sierra Space, Astranis, Planet, Maxar, Axiom Space), automotive and EV (Tesla, Rivian, General Motors, Ford, Lucid, Waymo, Zoox, Aptiv, Bosch), semiconductors (NVIDIA, Qualcomm, Intel, Analog Devices, Texas Instruments, Broadcom, Marvell, Micron, NXP, Infineon), consumer electronics and computing (Apple, Google Hardware, Meta Reality Labs, Microsoft Devices, Amazon, Samsung, Garmin, Sonos), drones, eVTOL, and robotics (Skydio, Shield AI, Zipline, Joby Aviation, Archer Aviation, Boston Dynamics, Figure, Agility Robotics, Wing), and industrial, energy, and medical devices (Siemens, GE Aerospace, GE Vernova, ABB, Schneider Electric, Rockwell Automation, Enphase, Medtronic, Intuitive Surgical). Candidates from comparable hardware-focused organizations also fit.
Who Should Apply
The ideal candidate brings at least five years in software, firmware, FPGA, or embedded systems engineering, including three recent years of hands-on work on real hardware. You have owned production hardware-connected code or firmware through bring-up, verification, and deployment, and you can discuss specific trade-offs in timing, memory, fault handling, or concurrency. This role suits engineers who have debugged physical systems with JTAG, logic analyzers, oscilloscopes, HIL/SIL rigs, or automated test equipment. The role fits less well for people whose experience centers on pure application software, program management, or people management without recent hands-on hardware work. Candidates often score lower when they cannot name concrete production programs, failure modes, or test setups, or when their background stops at coursework, simulation-only projects, or theoretical digital design.
Salary Insight
The role pays $100 to $120 per hour. That range sits at the high end for remote contract work in embedded firmware, FPGA/RTL, flight software, and hardware test automation, and it matches engineers with five or more years of production hardware experience plus recent hands-on ownership.
Pay and demand for Software Engineering roles
AggregatedTypical pay
$75/hour
This role
$100–$120/hr
Most Software Engineering roles pay $57–$98 per hour. This role's pay sits above that range.
Based on 304 similar roles that publish pay · 44 publish only a top rate; those count at the rate they gave
Rates shown per hour. Yearly and monthly pay converted; one-time fees and non-USD pay are not included.
- Live similar roles
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- Listed in last 30 days
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- 89%
Hiring most right now: micro1 (142) · Mercor (52) · AfterQuery (47)
Most requested skills · share of roles
- python20%
- technical writing12%
- Typescript9%
- JAVA9%
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Compensation
$100–120/hr
Required Skills
Application Tip
In your application, name one production hardware program you owned end to end and quantify its scope: board bring-up count, test coverage, defect classes you caught, or timing and memory constraints you resolved. Mention exact tools such as JTAG, logic analyzers, HIL/SIL rigs, Verilog, or RTOS work because the fit review looks for concrete hardware debugging evidence.
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