About this Lead Embedded Software Engineer role at Formlabs
About Formlabs:
Do you want to change how the world creates?
At Formlabs, we’re building tools that let anyone bring ideas to life, from cutting-edge products to life-saving medical devices. Our 3D printing technology powers innovation at more than 50,000 industry leaders worldwide, including Apple, Google, Tesla, New Balance, and NASA. Together, we’re helping everyone design, prototype, and manufacture faster than ever before.
We’re a team of hands-on builders, engineers, and innovators reinventing how the world makes physical things. If you’re ready to shape the future of fabrication, come build it with us.
Your Impact:
Firmware turns a Formlabs printer from a box of boards, motors, lasers, and sensors into a machine people trust for a 12-hour print. It runs on more than 130,000 printers in dental labs, hospitals, factories, and engineering teams, from the Form 4 and Form 4L to the Fuse 1+ and Fuse X1. As our Embedded Engineering Manager, you'll lead the embedded software team that writes it, across microcontrollers and embedded Linux. We're adding new printers over the next few years, so the platform you build now decides how fast each new machine comes up and how well it holds up in the field.
What You’ll Do:
- Own delivery of embedded firmware for current and upcoming printers: hit program milestones, set the quality bar, and decide with program leads what ships now and what waits.
- Stay hands-on. Review architecture and code, debug on target hardware next to your engineers, and write code when the team needs another pair of hands.
- Set direction for a shared embedded platform (drivers, communication stacks, RTOS and embedded Linux integration, bootloaders, firmware updates and build infrastructure) so each new printer reuses what works instead of starting over.
- Hire strong embedded engineers, coach them toward their best work, and deal with performance problems directly and early.
- Partner with electrical engineering, systems integration, mechanical and software teams from board bring-up through production, and trace field failures back to root cause.
- Build the test automation, CI, and static analysis that let the team ship firmware updates to a large installed base without breaking it.
- Question requirements and cut work that doesn't matter to customers, so the team spends its time on what does.
About You:
- Experienced embedded software engineer who has shipped production firmware in C and C++ for complex electromechanical products such as robots, consumer electronics, medical devices or industrial equipment.
- You've led a team of embedded or firmware engineers, including hiring and managing performance.
- You've taken multiple products from prototype to volume production and supported them after launch.
- You're comfortable working from bare-metal microcontrollers to embedded Linux and multicore processors, using Python for tooling and testing.
- You've brought up boards and peripherals yourself (ADC, PWM, SPI, I2C, CAN, Ethernet), can read a schematic, and debug with a scope and logic analyzer.
- You can profile and optimize firmware for performance, memory, and power, and diagnose problems across several connected controllers using logs and trace data.
- You make decisions with incomplete information, move quickly, and can explain how a technical call affects the customer.
- You communicate clearly with electrical, mechanical, and software engineers, as well as product and program leads.
Bonus Skills:
- Linux kernel experience, such as writing device drivers
- Firmware for motion control, lasers or optics, or thermal systems
- Over-the-air (OTA) updates and device security for connected products
- Supporting a large fleet of connected devices in the field
- MISRA C or other safety-critical coding standards
- Passion and experience in 3D printing
- Background in electronics or robotics
Our Benefits & Perks:
- Robust equity program to build future wealth through RSUs
- Comprehensive healthcare coverage (Medical, Dental, Vision)
- 401K matching and access to financial advisors
- Generous paid Parental Leave (up to 16 weeks)
- Tenure-based paid Sabbatical Leave (up to 6 weeks)
- Flexible Out of Office Plan – Take time when you need it
- Ample on-site parking & pre-tax commuter benefits
- Healthy on-site lunches, snacks, beverages, & treats
- Regular sponsored professional development opportunities
- Many opt-in culture events across our diverse community
- And of course… unlimited 3D prints
We are an equal opportunity employer and value diversity at our company. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, color, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, age, marital status, veteran status, or disability status.
Even if you don't check every box, but see yourself contributing, please apply. Help us build an inclusive community that will change the face of 3D printing.
Compensation
Every Formlabs employee receives equity because everyone contributes to building the company. You’ll have the opportunity to share financially in the value we create together, with a shared incentive to build a business that succeeds over the long term. Equity will be a significant portion of your total compensation, and will increase over time in proportion to your impact. The base pay will be determined by your skills, qualifications, experience, location, and expected impact on the organization.
