Senior Embedded Software Engineer

About us

Brainworx develops professional audio software, combining analogue expertise with digital innovation to create tools for music producers, mixing engineers and mastering professionals.

We are part of RCKFRC Group, alongside Plugin Alliance, Apogee and Manley. Together, we are building a connected software and hardware ecosystem.

Brainworx Tech GmbH is looking for an Embedded Linux Firmware/Software Engineer to help develop the platform software for our next generation of professional audio products.

About the role

You will lead embedded software for our FPGA-based audio interfaces. You will own the FPGA designs in a modular converter's chassis and its I/O modules, the link to the computer over Thunderbolt, and the macOS drivers that present the device to Core Audio and to our control software.

This is a hands-on lead role. You will write and review FPGA code, firmware and driver code yourself, set the engineering standard for these layers, and support products already in the hands of professional studios. You will work closely with the control software team, the hardware engineers, and our test team's hardware-in-the-loop rig.

Responsibilities

• Own the FPGA designs in the chassis and I/O modules: maintain, refactor and extend them, and make every build reproducible in our CI pipeline.
• Own the host link. Design and maintain the transport between the FPGA and the computer over Thunderbolt (PCIe), including DMA, buffer management, clocking and latency.
• Develop the host drivers the product needs on macOS: the DriverKit audio driver for Core Audio, its control interface to our control software's background service, and code signing, entitlements and notarisation under the company's Apple developer account.
• Deliver low-latency effects support. Work with the C++ team on the computer-side engine that runs effects in the device's monitoring path, and prove it meets its latency and dropout targets.
• Lead technically. Set coding, review and testing standards for FPGA, firmware and driver code; review every change in these layers; write the design documentation others will rely on.
• Support shipping products. Diagnose field issues, release fixes through signed firmware and driver updates, and support customer service and QA.
• Test on real hardware. Define the device tests for the hardware-in-the-loop rig (soak, sample-rate changes, sleep and wake, hot-plug) and keep them green.
• Work across teams. Partner with hardware engineers on bring-up and board revisions, and with the control software team on the device protocol and its versioning.

Required experience

• A degree in electrical engineering, computer engineering or computer science, or equivalent experience.
• 5+ years in embedded software, FPGA or driver development, with at least one shipped hardware product you owned end to end.
• Production FPGA experience in Verilog or VHDL, ideally on Intel (Altera) devices with Quartus: clock-domain crossing, timing closure, simulation and on-chip debugging.
• PCIe experience: DMA engines, BARs, interrupts, and the host side that drives them. Thunderbolt experience is a strong plus.
• macOS driver development in C/C++: DriverKit (or IOKit kernel extensions), and how a driver presents audio to Core Audio.
• Real-time audio fundamentals: sample rates, I2S/TDM, word clock, buffering, latency and dropout analysis.
• Comfortable at the bench: reading schematics, board bring-up, and using an oscilloscope, logic analyser and bus analysers.
• Strong debugging of concurrent and interrupt-driven code across the hardware/software boundary.
• Clear written English; you document designs so others can maintain them.

Ideal qualifications

• Experience developing audio interfaces or other professional audio equipment.
• Windows driver development (WDM/KS, ASIO, or KMDF/UMDF) for audio devices.
• Pro Tools HD/DigiLink or Waves SoundGrid integration.
• Microcontroller firmware (Arm Cortex-M), including PSoC.
• Clock and PLL design for audio: jitter attenuation and sync to external sources.
• Embedded Linux on Arm (for example NXP i.MX), since our USB products run effects on Arm processors.
• Secure firmware updates with signing and rollback.
• Hardware-in-the-loop test automation and CI for FPGA builds.