Principal Embedded Software Engineer - Security

Company Overview

Ambiq is on a mission to enable intelligence everywhere — powering the AI edge revolution with the world's lowest-power semiconductor solutions.

Built on our proprietary sub- and near-threshold technology, our chips deliver multi-fold improvements in energy efficiency without costly process scaling. Since 2010, we've shipped over 300 million units to customers building smarter wearables, medical devices, IoT products, and AI-powered edge applications.

Our cross-functional teams span design, research, development, production, marketing, sales, and operations across Austin, Hsinchu, Shanghai, Shenzhen, and Singapore. We move fast, tackle hard problems, and create space for people to grow through complex, meaningful work that shapes the future of technology.

We're looking for self-motivated, creative problem-solvers who are eager to push technological limits and make a real impact in energy efficiency.

At Ambiq, we live by five values: Innovate. Collaborate. Focus. Learn. Achieve.

If that's you, join us — the intelligence everywhere revolution starts here.

This role will be on-site 5 days a week in NW Austin.

Scope

As a member of the team at Ambiq, an Sr. Staff Embedded Software Engineer (Security),  will provide technical and team leadership in extending and supporting Ambiq’s Secure Bootrom/Bootloader and SDK for the Apollo SoC and emulation platforms.

This role will work within our global MCU software development team, closely with the architecture team and local MCU SoC design teams, focusing on MCU software development and testing.

A successful candidate should be team-oriented, fast-learning, result-driven, and self-motivated with an “always learning” mindset. He/She will have an inquiring spirit and be comfortable in a lab environment, working hands-on with bare metal hardware and debugging tools for embedded systems.

The candidate will be involved in maintaining and extending the Secure Boot ROM, Secure Bootloader, and security aspects of the SDK for Ambiq MCU products from concept through release.

Responsibilities

• Technical Leadership within the MCU Software team. Lead the technical planning, work assignments, and implementation for the new products and new features to be implemented by the MCU software team.
• As the team scales, there's a potential path to managing a small to mid-size team. The candidate is someone who's excited to grow into a player-coach role over time.
• Work with the teams, e.g., Design, Architecture, Verification, and Applications, to define and implement new security features from design to production.
• Participate in testing and verification of pre-silicon (via FPGA emulation), and post-silicon (first Silicon), and debug of issues found, focusing on Secure Bootrom and Bootloader and the hardware features supporting them.
• Integration and Testing of runtime cryptographic operations utilizing the embedded hardware accelerators.
• Work closely with the SQA and System Test team to help define and implement test cases for security deliverables to ensure full coverage.
• Work with other team members to implement the hardware abstraction layer (HAL) and board support package (BSP) of the SDK.

Qualifications

• BS/MS (EE, CE, or CS) with 14+ years of embedded projects utilizing both bare metal and RTOS systems/real-time environments.
• 3+ years of team management experience preferred
• Expert-level proficiency in C, with C++ and object-oriented extensions.
• Embedded Expertise: Strong knowledge of ARM architectures, RTOS, and low-level drivers (I2C, SPI, UART).
• Security Expertise: Experience with Secure Boot, PKI, encryption (AES, RSA, ECC), and embedded security (TrustZone, CryptoCell).
• Experience: Bachelor’s or Master's in CS/EE with 5+ years of relevant embedded security experience.
• Familiarity with debuggers (JTAG, Saleae), Git, and scripting languages (Python, Bash).
• Understanding of security implications for the embedded systems, and familiarity with IoT security concepts (TrustZone, CryptoCell, and secure boot)
• Strong proficiency in Python
• Use of gcc and Arm compilers and MCU IDEs from ARM, Keil, IAR, Eclipse or others
• Excellent problem-solving skills dealing with issues related to HW/SW debug, FPGA/Silicon testing
• Technical Leadership of projects utilizing CI/CD development and automated testing principles.
• Strong documentation skills, mentorship of junior engineers, and ability to work in cross-functional teams.

**Must be currently authorized to work in the United States for any employer. We do not sponsor or take over sponsorship of employment visas (now or in the future) for this role.