Firmware Engineering Manager

Firmware Engineering Manager

San Bruno, California

Mill is a waste prevention technology company reimagining what it means to eliminate waste, starting with food. We build smart systems and infrastructure for homes, businesses, and municipalities that transform food scraps from landfill-bound waste into valuable resources, including chicken feed. Tens of thousands of Mill's residential food recyclers are already helping households divert millions of pounds of food scraps every year, paving the way for our upcoming launch of Mill Commercialthe industry's first end-to-end solution for managing, understanding, and preventing food waste in commercial environments (e.g. grocery, restaurants, food services). At Mill, we are passionate about building easy-to-use, beautifully designed technologies that keep food in the food system and out of landfills.

We're seeking a Firmware Engineering Manager to lead the design, development, and implementation of low-level firmware for our next-generation connected product, while remaining hands-on as an individual contributor. You'll manage and grow a small team of firmware engineers while personally contributing to critical design and implementation work, working closely with cloud services, mobile app, product, and hardware teams to integrate connectivity features seamlessly.

Key Responsibilities

People & Team Leadership

• Manage, mentor, and grow a team of firmware engineers, providing technical guidance, career development, and regular performance feedback.
• Set team priorities and roadmaps in partnership with product and hardware leadership, balancing technical debt, new feature work, and production readiness.
• Recruit and interview firmware engineering candidates as the team scales.
• Foster a collaborative, inclusive team culture that encourages knowledge-sharing and technical growth.

Technical & Individual Contribution

• Personally design and implement robust firmware on MCU platforms, ensuring support for wireless connectivity, data upload, OTA updates, sensor integration, and other core functionalities.
• Develop and optimize communication stacks for wireless protocols, ensuring reliable pairing, network configuration, and data exchange.
• Write efficient low-level code that integrates with hardware peripherals (e.g., RF modules, sensors) using standard interfaces such as GPIO, I2C, SPI, and UART.
• Apply best practices for error handling and performance optimization to support robust connectivity features.
• Work closely with cross-functional teams to rigorously debug, test, and troubleshoot firmware, ensuring optimal performance, reliability, and security.
• Engage actively with multidisciplinary teams, sharing insights and aligning on system-level requirements to drive cohesive project success.
• Drive the team's contributions to deployment readiness for large-scale production.
• Review code from team members and peers to maintain best practices in style, accuracy, and efficiency.

Required Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, or equivalent experience, with 5+ years in embedded systems development.
• Prior experience leading, managing, or mentoring engineers, or demonstrated readiness to step into a management role (e.g., tech lead experience).
• Deep understanding of computer networking and firmware for data-intensive applications.
• Strong expertise in C programming for embedded systems, with a solid grasp of memory management and real-time operating system principles.
• Proficiency in hardware-software interfacing, including protocols like GPIO, I2C, SPI, and JTAG.
• Proficiency with troubleshooting tools (debuggers, Wireshark) and measurement equipment (multimeters, oscilloscopes, logic analyzers).
• Demonstrated expertise in debugging and rigorous testing to quickly identify and resolve complex issues.
• Familiarity with version control, CI, and build systems.
• Excellent communication and interpersonal skills to foster a collaborative, team-oriented environment.

Preferred Skills

• Hands-on experience with connectivity modules (Wi-Fi, Bluetooth) and RTOS (FreeRTOS preferred).
• Experience with Jetson linux platform and ESP32 microcontrollers.
• Working knowledge of cloud computing protocols (e.g., MQTT) and platforms like AWS (AWS CDK is a plus).
• Experience with cellular connectivity.

The estimated base salary range for this position is $245-$280K, which does not include the value of benefits or a potential equity grant. A wide range of factors are considered in making compensation decisions, including but not limited to skill sets, market conditions, experience and training, licensure and certifications, and business and organizational needs.