Senior Embedded Software Engineer

Development

• Develop embedded software for grid-connected inverters.
• Design and implement real-time firmware from scratch for ARM Cortex-M microcontrollers; manage memory, peripherals, interrupts, and debug low-level issues.
• Develop bare-metal and RTOS-based applications; reason about latency budgets, interrupt priorities, and timing edge cases in real-world deployments.
• Implement real-time platforms where to deploy control algorithms and closed-loop firmware that operate within hard timing constraints and safety requirements for grid-connected applications.
• Bring up new hardware platforms: configure peripherals, integrate sensors and actuators, validate functionality, and document the integration process.
• Troubleshoot firmware–hardware faults in test rigs and in the field; reproduce issues, analyse logs, and deliver robust fixes without disrupting future deployed systems.

Quality and Collaboration

• Work closely with hardware engineers, power electronics specialists, control engineers, and systems teams to define interfaces, timing budgets, and validation strategies.
• Participate actively in code reviews, design discussions, technical analyses and help raise the standard of the codebase.
• Contribute to safety and quality processes: able to identify regulatory standard compliance and ensure firmware aligns accordingly, maintain traceability, and document design decisions and test evidence.
• Create and maintain technical documentation including requirements, design specifications, test reports, and architecture notes.
• Work within clear timescales to deliver projects on time with ambitious product goals.

This role contributes to transforming power systems by building the hardware and software backbone for smart grids, unlocking the massive potential in this under-innovated sector that touches every aspect of modern lives.

• A degree in electronics, embedded systems, software engineering, or related discipline, with demonstrated industrial experience.
• Industrial experience building real-time embedded systems – developing, shipping and supporting firmware in complex products, from prototype through to deployment.
• Solid understanding of real-time and deterministic embedded software design principles.
• Demonstrable experience of working on embedded software projects using C/C++.
• Mastery of C language and its underlying implementation cost function.
• Proven experience developing bare-metal and RTOS applications, managing interrupt priorities and latency budgets, and debugging race conditions and timing issues in deployed real-time systems.
• Good knowledge of performance optimisation techniques and hardware/software interaction.
• Ability to diagnose firmware–hardware faults using oscilloscopes, logic analysers, JTAG debuggers, and low-level inspection.
• Strong communication and written skills.
• Willingness to travel nationally and internationally for testing/commissioning when required.

• Employee Option Plan: Equity in IONATE.
• Private Medical & Dental Insurance: Full, comprehensive private medical and dental cover through Bupa from day one, with option to add dependents.
• Company pension: Flexible, sustainable pension product.
• Career Development: Annual budget for professional development and goal-setting with team.
• Flexible working schedules: Work-from-home arrangements available.
• Cycle to Work Scheme: Assistance purchasing a bicycle.
• Slow travel: Extra 2 slow travel days per year for lower carbon travel methods.

IONATE is a deep tech scale-up building the hardware and software backbone for smart grids, with a mission to transform power systems – from grids and microgrids to renewables and data centres – unlocking the massive potential in this under-innovated sector.