Senior Embedded/Firmware Engineer (freelance)
intent
Canada, Germany, India, Israel, United Kingdom +1 moreremotePosted 2 days ago
Skill Required
Firmware-EngineeringEmbedded-Systems-EngineeringEmbedded-Software-DevelopmentIoT-EngineeringHardware-EngineeringSenior-Embedded-EngineerSenior-Firmware-EngineerSenior-Embedded-Systems-EngineerLead-Embedded-Firmware-EngineerSenior-Embedded-Software-DeveloperPrincipal-Embedded-Systems-EngineerFirmware EngineerFirmwareArduinoPrototypingPythonMQTTC++AzureDesign PatternsMicrocontrollerAWSGCPContract
Key highlights
- 135-180 PLN/h net B2B
- 4+ years of professional firmware development required
- Fully remote with flexible hours
- Potential path to permanent contract with full benefits after 3 months
- Strong C/C++ and ESP32/STM32 experience required
- Evening calls with US clients (up to ~20:00 CET)
Role overview
Join intent as a firmware engineer on a freelance, time & material basis, with a potential path to a permanent contract after three months. You'll work on connected devices (wearables, smart audio, health-tech hardware) for high-profile clients, focusing on firmware development, BLE stacks, power budgets, and sensor pipelines. The role is fully remote with flexible hours, and you'll collaborate with cross-functional teams to deliver robust firmware solutions. intent is an AI-native, fully remote company with a strong track record in hardware and firmware innovation since 2008.
Responsibilities
- Plan, develop, and ship firmware for connected devices: wearables, audio, health-tech hardware
- Gather and analyze requirements from clients, then turn them into something that actually works on real silicon
- Consult clients and internal teams on stacks, tools, and trade-offs
- Work side by side with mobile, backend, and QA to make sure the device and its companion app actually understand each other over BLE
- Test firmware releases and write the documentation that future-you will thank present-you for
- Estimate your own work and flag risks before they become blockers
- Push for better practices: code reviews, patterns, knowledge-sharing inside and outside the chapter
- Use AI tools as part of your daily workflow, not as a party trick
Requirements
- 4+ years of professional firmware development
- Strong C/C++ for embedded systems (not "I dabbled in microcontrollers in school")
- Hands-on ESP32 experience, including ESP-IDF and ESP-ADF
- STM32 experience in production projects
- Solid Bluetooth knowledge: BLE, Bluetooth Mesh, and comfort across the stack layers
- Toolchain fluency: CMake, GCC, Python-based tooling
- Familiarity with IoT protocols like MQTT and WebSockets
- A feel for the connected device landscape: IoT, home automation, wearables, automotive
- English at B2+, written and spoken, because our clients are mostly US-based
- Self-reliance, ownership, and the kind of communication where people don't have to guess what you meant
Nice to have
- Rapid hardware prototyping on Arduino, Raspberry Pi, BeagleBone, Nucleo
- Working knowledge of LoRa, Zigbee, Thread, Wi-Fi, and other networking standards
- Fleet deployment and management with AWS IoT Core, GCP Cloud IoT, Azure IoT, or similar
- Cryptography in embedded contexts
- Audio paths: encoding, decoding, mixers
- Machine learning on embedded targets
- Rust in firmware
- FreeRTOS, Zephyr, or other embedded operating systems
- Genuine curiosity about the devices you build, not just the bits flying around them
Benefits
- 135-180 PLN/h net B2B, depending on your experience
- Truly flexible hours: you organize your day
- Fully remote, with pet-friendly Warsaw office + Gdansk cowork if you want them
- Access to internal knowledge-sharing: tech talks, experiments, side projects
- After 3 months, potential path to permanent contract with fixed monthly salary, 26 days paid leave, 10 sick days, Saltus medical care, and a training budget
Additional details
- Freelance, time & material basis: paid for the hours you actually work on real client projects
- First three months are a trial period to determine mutual fit, dependent on work, project pipeline, and business timing
- Fully remote with optional pet-friendly office in Warsaw and coworking space in Gdansk
- Working hours are flexible: most of the team operates between 10:00 and 18:00 CET, with meetings in that window
- Evening calls with US-based clients (up to ~20:00 CET) are part of the rhythm, sometimes a couple of times a week, always planned ahead
- Part of the Firmware & Hardware chapter for knowledge-sharing, and on a project squad led by a PM for day-to-day delivery
- During the freelance period, there is no paid leave or medical benefits
- Recruitment process is in English and includes: application with screening questions, HR call (~45 min), technical meeting (~90 min), final feedback within a few days
- All interviews are recorded for internal evaluation purposes
- intent is an equal opportunity employer
- One more thing: bonus points if you share something you've built that made you proud, ideally something where the firmware had to behave under conditions nobody told you about upfront
- Originally posted on Himalayas