Senior Firmware Engineer

Title: Senior Firmware Engineer(FTL)
Location: Rancho Cordova, CA, 95742
Duration: Fulltime  
Interview Mode: Video
Experience (Years) - 8 (Min) - 15 (Max)

Job Description

Prioritized Must Have Skills for the Senior Firmware Engineer(FTL):

3+ years of experience in SSD controller and firmware architecture, including FTL development.

Strong C/C++ programming and data structures experience in software/firmware development.

Hands-on experience with FTL algorithms, including Garbage Collection, Wear Leveling, bad block management, metadata handling, and NAND error management.

Hands-on experience with JTAG/ICE debugging and firmware debugging, validation, and root-cause analysis.

Strong understanding of NAND flash and SSD technologies, including PCIe/NVMe or SATA protocols and power-loss protection/recovery.

Responsibilities of the Senior Firmware Engineer(FTL):

Design and Maintain FTL Architecture

Develop and maintain the Flash Translation Layer (FTL), including I/O flow, Garbage Collection, and Wear Leveling algorithms to ensure data integrity and maximize NAND endurance.

Block Management and Metadata Handling

Implement bad block detection, isolation, and data migration mechanisms to manage block lifecycle.

Design robust metadata structures to support fast mapping table reconstruction and system boot.

Error Handling Mechanisms

Prevent and mitigate NAND-related issues such as read disturb, program/erase failures, and retention loss.

Implement RAID encode/decode flows to guarantee data reliability.

Power-Loss Protection

Design and implement power-loss protection algorithms to maintain data consistency and metadata integrity during unexpected shutdowns.

Verify and optimize power-loss recovery flow to ensure fast and reliable system startup.

Performance and Resource Optimization

Optimize channel/die/plane access scheduling and parallelism to improve throughput and reduce latency.

Enhance DRAM/SRAM usage efficiency and reduce Write Amplification for better endurance and performance.

Debugging and Validation

Develop and analyze FTL traces and logs for performance profiling and issue root-cause analysis.

Conduct stress testing, mixed workload testing, power-fail tests, and corner-case verification to ensure firmware stability and reliability.

Collaborate with Validation, Hardware, and ASIC teams to resolve cross-functional issues and ensure system robustness.

 Requirements of the Senior Firmware Engineer(FTL):

Master’s degree in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, Computer Science, or a related field.

At least 3 years of experience in software/firmware applications engineering.

At least 3 years of experience with SSD controller/firmware architecture.

Strong experience in C/C++ programming and data structures.

Hands-on experience with JTAG/ICE debuggers.

Experience with version control software such as Git.

Ability to work independently as well as collaboratively within a small team.

Must be willing to learn quickly and work effectively as a team player.

Strong oral, written, and presentation skills for communication and documentation.

Ability to work independently with minimal day-to-day supervision.

Preferred Qualifications

Experience operating logic analyzers, oscilloscopes, and bus protocol analyzers.

Familiarity with SATA/PCIe (NVMe) protocols.

Familiarity with NAND flash protocols.

Linux system debugging experience.

Fluency in reading and writing Mandarin preferred.

Thanks

Sam