Staff engineer Jobs in Berkeley, CA

Staff Firmware Engineer

Berkeley, California, United States

As a Staff Firmware Engineer at Copper, you'll help build the firmware that powers our energy-storage-enabled appliances. You'll work across device firmware, connectivity, and cloud data flow to create reliable systems that operate in real homes every day.

You'll take ownership of core embedded architecture, including device communication, fleet management, and scalability. You'll also have opportunities to lead projects spanning appliance performance, battery management, power electronics integration, UI/graphics, and new product development.

This is a hands-on, high-impact role. You'll work closely with a small, cross-functional team and take on ambiguous problems, turning rough ideas into shippable, testable systems. As a senior technical leader, you'll help shape how we build firmware at Copper, raise the technical bar, and mentor other engineers as the team grows.

We value a diverse workplace and are assembling our team to match these values at this early stage. We especially welcome different backgrounds, experiences, abilities, and perspectives, and strongly encourage people of all ethnic backgrounds and genders to apply.

What you'll do

• Own major portions of the embedded firmware stack for the Charlie induction range, from early development through production, deployment, and field support.
• Design, implement, and test new firmware features. This often includes hands-on testing on real appliances, including cooking food.
• Lead improvements to device connectivity and reliability, including Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, OTA updates, provisioning flows, and failure detection and recovery mechanisms.
• Own and evolve systems related to fleet management, telemetry, remote control, and data flow, with a focus on robustness at scale.
• Support manufacturing and production firmware needs, including flashing stations, provisioning workflows, and end-of-line test systems.
• Identify gaps in tooling, testing, or processes and help build the infrastructure needed to support a growing fleet and team.
• Mentor other engineers through design reviews, debugging support, and day-to-day technical collaboration.

What you'll bring

• 8+ years of hands-on experience developing and supporting embedded systems, with a strong track record of shipping products into production and supporting customer fleets.
• Deep experience building connected embedded products, including Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, TCP/IP, and application-layer protocols such as MQTT, HTTPS, CoAP, or similar.
• Strong understanding of OTA update systems and bootloader design, with experience making updates reliable across real customer fleets.
• Excellent command of embedded C, with comfort working close to the hardware. C++ experience is a plus.
• Hands-on experience developing FreeRTOS-based systems, including task design, timing, memory management, and debugging complex runtime behavior.
• Experience designing and supporting systems that interact with cloud infrastructure, including REST APIs, data pipelines, and fleet telemetry.
• Proven ability to architect and improve development workflows, such as hardware-in-the-loop testing, software-in-the-loop testing, automated CI, and unit testing.
• Track record of shipping multiple embedded products from early development through production and long-term fleet support.
• Strong technical communication skills, with the ability to collaborate across electrical, mechanical, cloud, and product teams to influence system architecture and technical direction.
• Comfort operating in ambiguity, making sound engineering tradeoffs, and taking ownership of outcomes rather than just implementations.

Location

This is a full-time position and it is expected to be in-office 4 days per week with 1 day flexible for in-office or remote work. Our office is located in Berkeley, CA.

Compensation & Benefits

The salary range for this role is $182,000 - $210,000. We are committed to equitable compensation, and we offer a generous benefits package to make sure you have the support you need.

Equal Employment Opportunity

We are committed to creating an equitable and inclusive environment for all our employees and are seeking to build a team that reflects the diversity of the people we hope to serve with our products. We are proud to be an equal opportunity employer.

About Us

Copper's vision is a future where every home is electrified with abundant clean energy. Our mission is to make decarbonization accessible to everyone by selling electric home appliances that enrich their daily lives. We're reducing the cost of electrification by integrating batteries into household appliances, starting with the stove. Our work has been funded by the Department of Energy, in an effort to reduce reliance on fossil fuels and increase energy resilience with products that are high-performance, safe, intuitive, and robust. As we build our team and pursue our mission, we do it with a strong sense of our core values because it's not just what you do, it's how you do it. You'll see this in high-level decisions, how we run meetings, our day-to-day work, hiring, and our interactions with customers and the broader community. We intend to have a massive impact on our team, our neighborhood, and the world.