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Salary: USD 155,000 - 175,000 / annual
ConnectDER is a venture-backed hardware company transforming distributed energy resources. The Meter Socket Adapter dramatically reduces cost and interconnection time for solar, EV charging, and home battery storage. This is a hands-on technical leadership role owning the device software system end-to-end for the IslandDER digital interface—a safety-critical embedded system that monitors voltage/current, drives relays, performs safety checks, and communicates securely with home batteries (Tesla Powerwall, V2H solutions) and the ConnectDER cloud.
You will report to the Director of Electrical Engineering and lead a team of 3 firmware engineers. You own the overall architecture, break complex requirements into well-scoped workstreams, delegate with clean interfaces, and stay hands-on writing production code where it matters most.
The device software comprises four subsystems: Data Acquisition (grid/microgrid metering), Control (real-time, safety-critical), Communication (Ethernet, WireGuard, multi-core interfaces), and Integration (fault tolerance, firmware updates, security, logging). You will architect and implement safety-critical software, design revenue-grade metering systems, partner with electrical engineering on hardware-software co-design, own the secure firmware-update path (secure boot, code signing, key management), and maintain a modern CI/CD pipeline.
In your first year, you might write design diagrams and safety cases for NRTL certification, bring up firmware on new boards with logic analyzers, stand up the code-signing pipeline for OTA updates, delegate well-scoped workstreams to teammates, and optimize control loops for timing budgets.
The role is hybrid based in Philadelphia, PA, near Center City, with flexibility for remote work. ConnectDER is a dynamic, venture-backed company with 50+ professionals working across remote, hybrid, and on-site roles.
RESPONSIBILITIES:
- Own overall device software architecture and break complex requirements into well-scoped workstreams
- Architect and implement safety-critical software, including FMEA, safety case, and NRTL certification
- Design and implement revenue-grade metering systems with data acquisition, signal processing, and calibration
- Partner with electrical engineering on hardware-software co-design, board bring-up, and cross-boundary debugging
- Own secure firmware-update path: secure boot, code signing, and key-management systems
- Maintain modern CI/CD pipeline and drive systems from prototype to mass production
REQUIREMENTS:
- Bachelor's degree in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, or Computer Science, with 7+ years firmware engineering and track record of shipping new products at scale
- Rigorous system design and documentation: exacting commitment to clear technical documentation, design diagrams, and discipline to drive complex safety certification (IEC 61508 / IEC 60730 / UL 1998) to completion
- Technical leadership: led technical direction of a project, architected approach, partitioned into workstreams, and shipped code yourself
- Expert in C, C++, and/or Rust with deep experience debugging embedded systems via oscilloscopes, logic analyzers, JTAG/SWD
- Deep bare-metal/RTOS firmware experience on modern 32-bit microcontrollers (ARM Cortex-M or similar), including low-level architecture and multi-core memory optimization
- Sophisticated use of AI coding agents paired with full ownership; can explain every significant decision shipped
- Bias for fast iteration and judgment to size effort to business value; strong communication skills for complex requirements to diverse stakeholders
PREFERRED:
- Master's degree in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, or Computer Science
- Prior experience taking safety-critical software through NRTL certification
- Matter/Thread device commissioning (SPAKE2+/PASE, setup-code or QR pairing)
- Protocols & build: I2C, UART, SPI, CAN/CAN-FD, Ethernet; build systems (Make, CMake); test automation and CI/CD
- Embedded TCP/IP networking (lwIP); WireGuard or similar secure tunnels on real-time embedded platform
- Reverse-engineering CAN protocols or developing custom evaluation tools
- RTOS configuration for multi-threaded, timing-critical applications (metrology, safety, communications); PX5 or ThreadX experience
- Code-signing / PKI system design or operation for firmware (key custody, signing pipeline, secure boot verification, key rotation/revocation)
- Familiarity with standards: UL 1741/IEEE 1547, UL 3141, UL 2900 (cybersecurity), ANSI C12.1 (metering)
