Embedded Software Engineer - Security

About the role

Company Overview

Ambiq is on a mission to enable intelligence everywhere — powering the AI edge revolution with the world's lowest-power semiconductor solutions.

Built on our proprietary sub- and near-threshold technology, our chips deliver multi-fold improvements in energy efficiency without costly process scaling. Since 2010, we've shipped over 300 million units to customers building smarter wearables, medical devices, IoT products, and AI-powered edge applications.

Our cross-functional teams span design, research, development, production, marketing, sales, and operations across Austin, Hsinchu, Shanghai, Shenzhen, and Singapore. We move fast, tackle hard problems, and create space for people to grow through complex, meaningful work that shapes the future of technology.

We're looking for self-motivated, creative problem-solvers who are eager to push technological limits and make a real impact in energy efficiency.

At Ambiq, we live by five values: Innovate. Collaborate. Focus. Learn. Achieve.

If that's you, join us — the intelligence everywhere revolution starts here.

This role will be on-site 5 days a week in NW Austin.

Scope

As a member of the Security team at Ambiq, the Embedded Software Engineer - Security will participate in extending and supporting Ambiq’s Secure Bootrom/Bootloader and SDK for the Apollo SoC and emulation platforms. This role will work within our global MCU software development team. It will work closely with the architecture team and the local MCU SoC design team, focusing on MCU software development and test activities. A successful candidate should be a fast-learning, result-driven, and self-motivated team player with an “always learning” mindset. They should possess an inquiring spirit and be comfortable working in a lab environment, with the ability to execute hands-on debugging for embedded systems. The candidate will be involved in extending each of these to cover new MCU members of the family as they become available.

Responsibilities

Participate in the design, implementation, testing & support of the Secure Bootrom and Secure Bootloader solutions.

Participate in automated testing and pre-silicon verification (via FPGA emulations), and post-silicon bring up, verification, and debug, focusing on Secure Bootrom and Secure Bootloader, are related HAL and Security Tools in the SDK.

Testing of runtime cryptographic operations utilizing embedded hardware accelerators.

Work closely with the SQA and System Test team to help define and implement test cases for security deliverables to ensure complete coverage.

Work with other team members to implement the hardware abstraction layer (HAL) and board support package (BSP) of the SDK.

Qualifications

BS/MS (EE, CE, or CS) with embedded projects utilizing both bare metal and RTOS systems/real-time environments.

2-5 years of work experience working with Embedded Security, cryptography, and secure boot concepts.

Working knowledge of cryptographic algorithms and protocols, including Public Key Infrastructure, symmetric encryption algorithms, hashing, etc.

Understanding of security implications for the embedded systems, and familiarity with IoT security concepts (TrustZone, CryptoCell, and Secure boot)

Work experience developing embedded C and ARM assembly language in a project setting with a focus on system initialization and low-level code.

Strong proficiency in Python

Experience with at least one IDE from ARM, Keil, IAR, Eclipse, or other

Excellent problem-solving skills dealing with issues related to HW/SW debug

Hands-on experience with lab equipment such as oscilloscopes, logic analyzers, Saleae, etc., for debugging issues.

Experience and understanding of software testing and test automation principles.