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XTEND is a global leader in advanced human-guided autonomous drone systems serving defense and security forces worldwide. We are seeking an Embedded Team Lead to join our R&D organization and lead the development of firmware and low-level software powering real-time autonomous and mission-critical systems.
In this role, you will combine hands-on technical leadership with people management. You will lead a team of embedded engineers while actively contributing to the design, implementation, and bring-up of firmware for airborne platforms and payloads. You own the embedded layer end-to-end—from microcontroller firmware and low-level drivers through hardware/software integration to production support and field-deployed systems. This is a unique opportunity to lead development at the intersection of software and hardware in systems operating in the most demanding real-world environments.
Key Responsibilities:
- Lead and mentor a team of embedded software engineers, fostering ownership, accountability, and technical excellence
- Take full ownership of embedded delivery from architecture and board bring-up through serial production and field deployment
- Act as a hands-on contributor to embedded C development for real-time, resource-constrained, mission-critical platforms
- Drive hardware/software integration with electrical, mechanical, and systems teams from prototype through production
- Ensure reliability, deterministic real-time behavior, and efficient resource utilization of firmware on fielded systems
- Conduct code and design reviews, enforce best practices, and maintain high development, testing, and documentation standards
- Manage sprint planning, task prioritization, technical roadmap alignment, and delivery timelines within an Agile framework
- Support recruitment, onboarding, and professional development of embedded engineers
Requirements:
- 5+ years of hands-on real-time embedded software and firmware development experience with strong expertise in C
- Proven experience leading and mentoring engineers in a technical team environment
- Strong embedded system design and architectural experience
- Deep understanding of embedded fundamentals: real-time behavior, interrupts, memory management, concurrency, and low-level debugging
- Hands-on experience with ARM microcontroller platforms (STM32 or similar) including firmware implementation and hardware bring-up
- Experience implementing and troubleshooting embedded communication interfaces (I2C, UART, SPI, GPIO, CAN)
- Ability to read schematics and work at board level with proficiency using oscilloscopes, logic analyzers, and hardware debuggers
- Strong experience working in Linux environments with Git-based workflows and modern development tools
- Strong ownership mindset and ability to lead technical initiatives end-to-end
Advantages:
- Experience with bootloaders and secure firmware update mechanisms
- Experience with sensor integration
- Experience supporting NPI, serial production, or fielded hardware systems including production test infrastructure
- Experience scaling teams or leading multi-disciplinary projects
