Contract Firmware Engineer Remote Jobs in California

Sr. Firmware Engineer, Bluetooth (BLE)
Eight Sleep is the world's first sleep fitness company. Our mission is to fuel human potential through optimal sleep. We use innovative technology, detailed design, and proven science and data to personalize and improve each night for everybody-changing the way people sleep forever and for the better.
Backed by leading Silicon Valley investors, we have been recognized as one of Fast Company's Most Innovative Companies in 2018, 2022, and 2023.
Our temperature-regulated technology, the Pod, is an absolute game changer, improving people's health and happiness by changing the way they sleep. The Pod was also recognized two years in a row by TIME's "Best Inventions of the Year." It is available for purchase in North America (the United States and Canada) and throughout the United Kingdom, Europe (Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Spain, Sweden, Denmark), and Australia via eightsleep.com. We're excited by the success of the Pod to date and still have a long way to go toward achieving our mission.
Join our team as a Sr. Firmware Engineer, Connectivity, to own the wireless connectivity stack that brings a new generation of hardware to life. You'll be part of a small team designing and implementing the BLE layer that connects our members' devices to the Eight Sleep ecosystem with high autonomy and direct, measurable impact on the member experience. We are a fast-moving, fast-growing company, and we embrace individuals with a growth mindset and a strong desire to help us achieve our mission: improving people's lives through optimal sleep.
How you'll contribute
• Own the BLE Stack: Architect, implement, and maintain the Bluetooth connectivity layer across our Pod ecosystem. Define GATT services, characteristics, and connection strategies that deliver reliable, secure, and power-efficient communication.
• Optimize for Always-On Devices: Drive radio-on time, advertising intervals, connection parameters, and PHY selection while maintaining low-latency sync of biometric data.
• Ensure Bulletproof Interoperability: Deliver a connectivity experience that "just works" across the long tail of iOS and Android devices, OS versions, and real-world RF environments. Use sniffers, protocol analyzers, and on-device telemetry to root-cause cross-stack issues with mobile and Pod gateway teams.
• Ship and Sustain OTA at Scale: Design and harden the secure OTA DFU pipeline so we can confidently push firmware to a global fleet of devices with low friction and zero bricks.
• Bring Up New Silicon: Partner with hardware teams on board bring-up, antenna tuning, regulatory certification (FCC/CE/Bluetooth SIG qualification), and silicon-vendor stack integration for our Nordic-based platform.
• Global Collaboration: Work closely with our manufacturing partners in China to develop RF and BLE production tests, ensuring we ship high-quality, fully-validated devices on time.
• Effective Remote Communication: Thrive in a hybrid in-person and remote work environment, ensuring clear and impactful communication across firmware, mobile, hardware, and ML teams.
What you need to succeed
• Proven BLE Expertise: 5+ years of embedded software engineering, with at least 3 years shipping production BLE firmware.
• Deep Protocol Knowledge: Strong working knowledge of the Bluetooth stack end-to-end - GAP, GATT, SMP, L2CAP, link layer behavior, advertising and scanning, connection events, pairing/bonding, and BLE security (LE Secure Connections, key management).
• Silicon Vendor Stacks: Hands-on experience with at least one vendor BLE stack and SDK (Nordic SoftDevice / nRF Connect SDK / Zephyr, Apple/Broadcom, TI, or similar). Comfortable reading and debugging vendor stack source.
• Embedded Fundamentals: Fluency in C/C++ on resource-constrained microcontrollers; proficiency with Python or NodeJS for host-side tooling. Skilled at peripheral drivers and bus protocols (UART, I2C, SPI), DMA, and low-power design.
• Power Discipline: Demonstrated ability to hit ultra-low-power targets: measuring and optimizing radio duty cycle, sleep current, and connection parameters against real battery-life budgets.
• Shipping at Scale: Have launched and maintained large fleets of wireless devices, including monitoring connectivity telemetry, sync reliability, and OTA firmware updates in the field.
• Hardware Acumen: Ability to read data sheets, schematics, and antenna matching networks for hardware bring-up and RF debugging. Fluent with logic analyzers, oscilloscopes, and BLE protocol sniffers (Ellisys, Frontline, nRF Sniffer, or equivalent).
• Adaptive Problem Solver: A fast-paced, iterative approach to debugging issues that span firmware, RF, mobile OS, and physics.
• Travel Readiness: Willingness and ability to travel regularly to China for supplier and CM support.
What sets you apart
• Track record shipping secure OTA DFU (signed images, dual-bank update, rollback) on a constrained device.
• Experience with multi-link / multi-role BLE topologies
• Bluetooth SIG qualification and regulatory certification experience (FCC/IC/CE/MIC).
• Bare-metal and cooperative-scheduler design in environments without a traditional RTOS.
• Expertise in automated BLE testing, RF chamber test setup, and connectivity observability/telemetry.
• Deep understanding of embedded security practices: secure boot, key provisioning, encrypted firmware, and threat modeling for wireless attack surfaces.