Contract Motor Control Engineer Jobs in Riverside, CA

We're seeking a Senior Platform/Real-Time Embedded Firmware Engineer with strong low-level embedded software expertise and a passion for building robust, deterministic firmware for safety-critical control systems. This role focuses on the real-time firmware foundation that enables actuators, motor drives, BMS, sensors, and vehicle-level systems to operate reliably.

You will architect, implement, and maintain firmware across real-time microcontroller platforms, owning BSPs, drivers, RTOS/bare-metal execution, timing, peripheral interfaces, diagnostics hooks, and hardware bring-up. This role works closely with embedded systems, motor control, BMS, and vehicle control software engineers to ensure the platform layer is reliable, reusable, and deterministic.

• Design and maintain real-time firmware architecture for safety-critical embedded control platforms.
• Own timing-sensitive firmware layers, interrupt structure, task scheduling, execution order, and deterministic data flow between hardware, drivers, middleware, and application software.
• Develop firmware frameworks that support reusable control execution, communication, diagnostics, monitoring, and system integration across multiple projects.

• Develop and maintain embedded software in C/C++ on real-time microcontroller platforms such as TI C2000, NXP, or comparable safety-oriented MCUs.
• Own board support packages, peripheral initialization, device configuration, and low-level hardware abstraction layers.
• Develop and debug drivers for peripherals and interfaces such as CAN, SPI, Ethernet, ADC, PWM, GPIO, timers, watchdogs, and other MCU peripherals.

• Support hardware bring-up, board validation, and low-level debugging across software and hardware boundaries.
• Diagnose issues involving MCU configuration, clocks, interrupts, peripherals, sensors, motor drive interfaces, BMS interfaces, and communication links.
• Work closely with electrical, controls, and systems teams to ensure the embedded firmware correctly supports actuator control, power electronics, sensors, and vehicle-level hardware.

• Implement robust embedded communication infrastructure for protocols such as CAN, CAN derivatives, SPI, Ethernet, ARINC 825, and other aerospace or automotive buses.
• Support reliable data exchange, message timing, arbitration, diagnostics, fault detection, and recovery behavior at the firmware/platform level.

• Support integration with motor control, BMS, sensors, and vehicle control software.
• Develop test hooks, debug interfaces, logging mechanisms, automation support, and data collection tools for lab validation, HIL testing, and system debugging.
• Support SIL/HIL environments where firmware interfaces, drivers, and platform behavior need to be validated.

• Support safety-critical embedded software development by following disciplined software development processes.
• Contribute to requirements, traceability, verification planning, configuration control, and certification readiness activities aligned with standards such as DO-178C, ARP4754/4761, ISO 26262 concepts, or equivalent safety frameworks.

• 5+ years of experience developing embedded firmware for complex real-time systems
• Strong proficiency in embedded C/C++ and real-time firmware architecture
• Experience with real-time microcontroller platforms such as TI C2000, NXP, or comparable safety-oriented MCUs
• Strong understanding of MCU peripherals, interrupts, timers, watchdogs, memory, clocks, ADC, PWM, GPIO, and communication interfaces
• Hands-on experience with communication protocols such as CAN, CAN derivatives, SPI, Ethernet, or ARINC 825
• Proven ability to integrate and debug software across hardware, firmware, and system boundaries
• Experience supporting hardware bring-up, lab validation, and HIL testing
• Strong analytical skills and low-level debugging ability

Preferred / Bonus Experience

• Experience with TI C2000, NXP, or similar real-time control microcontrollers
• Prior work on safety-critical or regulated systems: aerospace, automotive, industrial
• Exposure to certification-oriented development processes: DO-178C, ARP4754/4761, ISO 26262 concepts
• Experience developing reusable BSPs, drivers, middleware, and embedded software frameworks
• Background supporting motor drives, BMS, power electronics, sensors, or vehicle control systems
• Experience supporting production launch, field issues, and long-term platform maintainability

This role provides the real-time firmware foundation that every higher-level control function depends on. Your work ensures that MCUs, peripherals, drivers, communication links, timing, diagnostics, and hardware interfaces behave predictably under all conditions.