[Remote] Firmware Architect
Note: The job is a remote job and is open to candidates in USA. TYLsemi is a company focused on building chiplet infrastructure IP for AI and HPC systems. The Firmware Architect will lead the firmware and embedded software architecture for TYL chiplets, ensuring seamless integration and collaboration between firmware and hardware components while driving development and quality assurance processes.
Responsibilities
- Own the end-to-end firmware/embedded-software architecture for TYL chiplets
- On-die: boot and secure boot, link sequencing, PCIe/CXL controller configuration and enumeration, address-translation (NTB/ATT) setup, MSI-X and AER handling, reset/FLR, power management, telemetry, and in-field firmware update
- Host-side: kernel drivers, the device-virtualization/transparency shim (synthetic PCIe device, VFIO-mdev-class), management libraries/APIs, and IOMMU (VT-d/SMMU) coordination
- Define the hardware/software boundary with architecture and RTL — datapath (credit, ordering, merge/split, address-translation execution) in RTL; control plane in firmware — and own register maps and UCIe sideband/mailbox protocols
- Stay hands-on through first silicon
- Drive pre-silicon firmware and host-software development on emulation, and virtual platforms, and lead post-silicon bring-up and debug
- Stand up the firmware engineering infrastructure: CI, automated and HIL testing, requirements traceability, secure-development practices (secure boot, attestation, key management), and the RAS/error-handling and fault-attribution strategy
- Define firmware release, quality, and security criteria across products and customers
- Be the technical bridge between firmware/software and architecture, RTL, PHY/IP vendors and program management — bringing software feasibility into hardware decisions early
- Work directly with customers: compute-SoC partners on PCIe/CXL enablement, ATE/SLT integrators on the firmware and management libraries
- Set technical direction, roadmap, and clear subsystem ownership (boot/security, PCIe/CXL management, host drivers and virtualization, RAS/telemetry)
Skills
- BS/MS in Electrical / Computer Engineering or Computer Science
- 12+ years of embedded firmware development, with at least 5 years in silicon-level bring-up and validation of high-speed interface IPs
- Expert-level C and assembly for resource-constrained embedded CPUs (RISC-V or Arm Cortex-M/R class); strong debugging skills using JTAG/OpenOCD, trace, and logic analysers
- Deep PCIe expertise: link-training state machine, equalization (Gen3 EQ/LFSR, Gen4/5 preset search, Gen6/7 Flit Mode), speed-change sequences, LTSSM register-level behaviour
- Hands-on experience with HPC compute SoC firmware ecosystems — UEFI/BIOS bring-up, ACPI table authoring, SMBus/I2C/MCTP platform management, VT-d/IOMMU configuration — on HPC platforms
- Solid understanding of x86 server platform boot flow: SEC → PEI → DXE → BDS, PCIe enumeration in PEI/DXE, Option ROM interaction, and PCIe error-recovery paths (AER, DPC)
- Experience with secure-boot architectures, code-signing flows, and OTA update mechanisms on embedded targets
- Comfortable working at the hardware-software boundary: reading RTL schematics, memory-mapped register specs, and waveforms from simulation or a logic analyser
- CXL 2.0/3.0 firmware experience: HDM decoder programming, CXL IDE, DVSEC, BISnp coordination
- UCIe / die-to-die sideband firmware experience (RDI/FDI parameter negotiation, sideband messaging)
- SPDM (DSP0274) and CMA device-attestation implementation experience
- Familiarity with PLDM for firmware update (DSP0267) and platform telemetry (DSP0248)
- ATE scripting background — Teradyne UltraFLEX / Advantest T2000 board-level bring-up scripts
- Exposure to chiplet packaging concepts (UCIe, EMIB, CoWoS) and multi-die power-sequencing considerations
- Kernel-mode driver or UEFI DXE driver development experience
Company Overview