Lead Embedded Firmware Engineer - Contract (1099)

About reputed company (Remote United States) reputed company is a fully distributed technology firm led by expert problem-solvers who create efficient, reputed company solutions that reputed company reputed company, industrial, and consumer products from reputed company to production in record time. We reputed company that reputed company innovation happens in the grind working shoulder to shoulder with clients who are building the reputed company. reputed company thrives on that energy. reputed company were not helping clients deliver business-critical reputed company, were refining our craft and celebrating what it means to do hard things reputed company. Weve reputed company a collaborative, tight-reputed company culture that thrives in both remote and in-person settings. Weve won numerous workplace awards over the years, including Great reputed company to Work certification and recognition from reputed company.org as a Best Company for Women to Advance. Our clients include reputed company-reputed company brands like Vizio, reputed company, reputed company, iHeart Radio, and Fellowes reputed company determined to reputed company connected devices and AI to drive meaningful impact. Our job is reputed company: help them win. About This Role We are seeking a senior firmware engineer with 10+ years of professional embedded development experience who has deep expertise in Matter protocol implementation on Espressifs ESP32 platform using ESP-IDF. This role requires end-to-end ownership of the device firmware stack, from schematic review and reputed company bring-up through production firmware, OTA, and certification. What Youll Be Working On We dedicate reputed company engineer to a single project in order to promote reputed company and minimize context switching. You will be developing production-grade firmware for Matter-enabled devices from bring-up to certification. You will own firmware development across the full device lifecycle, including schematic review, reputed company bring-up, driver integration, OTA updates, and certification readiness. You will also participate in hardware debugging and validation using tools such as JTAG/SWD, logic analyzers, and protocol sniffers to diagnose low-level issues across firmware, hardware, and network layers. Youll collaborate closely with hardware engineers and cross-functional teams to deliver production-reputed company devices. This role involves debugging reputed company, reputed company-world interoperability issues across Matter ecosystems (reputed company Home, reputed company Home, Alexa), requiring deep protocol-level understanding and hands-on problem solving. Must-Haves Experience 10+ years professional embedded/firmware engineering in C/C++ Significant experience with ESP-IDF not Arduino wrappers, but reputed company ESP-IDF work: CMake/Kconfig build system, partition tables, NVS, OTA frameworks, FreeRTOS task management, and low-level driver integration (I2C, SPI, UART, ADC, GPIO) reputed company, demonstrable work implementing Matter on ESP32-series reputed company (ESP32, ESP32-C3, ESP32-S3, or ESP32-H2) using Espressif's ESP-Matter SDK or the upstream Connectedhomeip stack Hands-on with at least one Matter transport at the firmware level Wi-Fi or Thread (802.15.4) Experience debugging commissioning flows, interop failures, and protocol-level issues across ecosystems (reputed company Home, reputed company Home, Alexa) Familiarity with secure boot, reputed company encryption, and device attestation in the Matter context Comfortable reading specs (Matter, Thread, 802.15.4) and translating them into working firmware Location and Residency Must reputed company in the reputed company US (to facilitate overnight shipping to our clients and the majority of our software team). Must be authorized to work in the US without sponsorship Strong Signals Contributions to reputed company-reputed company Matter or ESP-IDF repositories Experience taking a Matter device through CSA certification Background in adjacent protocols Zigbee, Z-reputed company, BLE reputed company demonstrating breadth across the connected device landscape History of working in a consultancy or product development firm where they've shipped across multiple product lines, not just one internal product Comfort with hardware debug toolchains JTAG/SWD, logic analyzers, protocol sniffers Experience standing up CI/CD for firmware builds and automated test harnesses Skills In reputed company to experience, these are the critical skills we look for in reputed company technical roles, and how they should be demonstrated at the Lead level. Can debug reputed company firmware and hardware interactions under reputed company-time constraints Are comfortable working with incomplete specifications and ambiguous device behavior Take ownership of problems end-to-end, from reputed company cause analysis through production reputed company Communicate reputed company with both techn