Firmware Engineering Lead

About the role

Skip is on a mission to make life joyful through powered movement. Movement is a powerful way to build physical, mental and social health. Yet it is elusive for 2 billion people due to age, injury, or disability. We are building products that will restore mobility for millions and enable a new frontier of joyful movement experiences. We want to build a future where a grandparent can easily outrun their grandkids and no one is left behind at the trailhead. Skip is a 22-person early-stage start-up that spun out of Google X in 2023. With deep cross-disciplinary expertise and key partnerships (e.g. with Arc'teryx) we are uniquely positioned to launch the first commercially successful wearable robotic device , the MO/GO , develop a platform to launch future Movewear products and transform millions of lives in the coming years. We're building powered wearable robots for everyday life - devices that sit at the intersection of motor control, real-time embedded systems, and edge compute. We're 22 people, all senior, all contributing directly to product. This role leads a small firmware team while staying hands-on with the systems that matter most. You'll set the technical bar for how we build firmware at Skip, and develop the engineers around you while doing it.

Responsibilities

• Leading and growing a small firmware engineering team, including hiring, mentorship, and technical direction
• End-to-end embedded C/C++ across our stack, including FreeRTOS, interrupt handling, JTAG/SWD debugging, and chip bring-up
• Data communication between peripherals and microcontrollers (ESP32, STM32 and their successors), including Wi-Fi and BLE
• Secure OTA pipelines and bootloader implementation
• AWS IoT Core infrastructure: mTLS, MQTT, fleet provisioning, IoT Jobs OTA
• Firmware for motor control across a range of actuators including BLDCs, custom PMSM and axial flux motors, cycloid gearboxes, and series elastic actuators (currently on c2000, evolving)
• Technical direction for chip selection, actuator firmware requirements, and future system architecture
• Adjacent product development including our Parkinson's device and future clinical and research platforms requiring edge compute
• Wearing prototypes several hours a week for on-body testing and data collection
• Bringing joy to the team, participating in embarrassing team events, and tolerating KZ's terrible music

Requirements

• 8+ years in firmware development, with at least 2 leading or mentoring a team
• Deep expertise in embedded C/C++ for high-performance, real-time applications including FreeRTOS
• Proven experience with ESP32, STM32, or comparable chipsets
• Strong background in AWS IoT Core, fleet management, and OTA systems
• Solid Linux, Python, and command-line fluency
• Experience with low-level hardware and OS internals at a kernel level
• Rigorous debugging instincts across JTAG, SWD, oscilloscopes, and logic analyzers
• The kind of technical credibility that makes people want to follow your lead, not just your title
• Ability to work from our Bay Area office 3 days a week
• Attention to detail, even in the middle of overly-long lists
• Sense of humour. Tolerant of Aussie and Canadian spelling.
• Bonus points:
• Experience with PMSM control on TI or STM chipsets
• Background in robotics, powered consumer electronics, drones, or anything that moves
• Familiarity with TFLite Micro or X-Cube-AI
• Startup experience and comfort using AI coding tools to punch above your weight
• Personal motivation to improve human movement
• This is a full time hybrid position working at the Skip office in the Dogpatch neighborhood of San Francisco.
• Any and all offers of employment extended by Skip are conditional on candidates' ability to provide satisfactory proof of eligibility to maintain full-time employment in the United States.

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