Firmware Engineer

Company and Team - The ocean covers 71% of our planet, yet we know less about it than the surface of Mars. Apeiron Labs is on a mission to change that. We're not just building underwater vehicles—we're building systems that will reshape weather prediction, revolutionize aquaculture, transform shipping, and strengthen national security. We're developing breakthrough technologies that slash ocean sensing costs by orders of magnitude                    Join a crew of battle-tested subsea specialists, robotics experts, firmware architects, and full- stack cloud engineers. This is a unique opportunity to engineer the future of ocean intelligence and contribute to humanity's understanding.                    Apeiron means unbounded in Greek. The challenge is unbounded. The opportunity is unbounded. Your creativity can be unbounded too.                                                 About the role                   We are looking for a firmware engineer with a proven track record of developing embedded software for robotic and electromechanical systems. The ideal candidate is hands-on and hardware-aware. They can move from the lab bench to the code editor with ease—and they understand that great embedded software is built in partnership with electrical, mechanical, and systems engineers.                    You should have extensive experience in bare-metal and RTOS-based development on STM32 microcontrollers. You need to be comfortable bringing up new boards, writing low-level drivers, and integrating with sensors, actuators, and communication interfaces in complex robotic systems. Experience with power management, motor control, and telemetry in resource- constrained environments is highly valued.                    For us, remote work might mean deploying systems in the ocean, watching your creations dive, and surfacing with data that changes everything. If you've got an adventurer's soul, you're our kind of engineer. 
How you will make an impact on ocean intelligence:

• Architect and implement embedded firmware for autonomous ocean vehicles, working directly on mission-critical systems such as power management, motor control, sensor acquisition, and communications.
• Own and evolve our STM32 firmware libraries and HALs, driving clean modular architecture across a growing codebase.
• Bring up new hardware platforms in the lab—bootloaders, debug tools, oscilloscopes, and all. You probably own a Saleae and maybe a Joulescope.
• Participate in and guide full-system bring-up and integration, working shoulder-to-shoulder with electrical and mechanical engineers.
• Build automated test frameworks and CI pipelines that ensure reliable, testable firmware.
• Support sea trials and offshore testing, debugging, and iterating rapidly in the field.
• Provide technical leadership, mentor junior engineers, and shape the engineering culture of the team.
• Contribute to a strong culture of documentation, peer review, and continuous improvement.

What you must have

• BS or MS in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, or related discipline.
• 5+ years of embedded systems experience, with a focus on bare-metal and RTOS development
• Deep expertise with STM32 microcontrollers (HAL, LL, CubeMX, peripheral bring-up, interrupt-driven design)
• Strong C/C++ skills and familiarity with embedded software best practices (state machines, modular design, fixed-point math, etc.)
• Experience with debugging tools (JTAG/SWD, logic analyzers, oscilloscopes), and profilers
• Familiarity with CAN, UART, SPI, I2C, and RS-485 interfaces
• Comfort working in a fast-paced, hardware-rich R&D environment
• US Citizenship required
• The mindset to rapidly iterate in startup time is required

It'd be great if you also had these

• Experience developing firmware for underwater or harsh-environment robotics systems
• Knowledge of motion control (PID, sensor fusion, encoders, etc.)
• Familiarity with low-power system design and sleep-state management
• Proficiency with scripting languages (Python, Bash) for automation and tooling
• Prior experience with software safety standards, unit testing, or static analysis
• Sea trial or field experience in support of deployed systems
• Experience with continuous integration systems (e.g., GitHub Actions, Jenkins, etc.)