Senior Firmware Developer

工作内容

Greetings, Firmware Pros,

Here is an exciting gig for you!

Tibbo Technology, Inc. is looking for a Senior Firmware Developer.

As our Senior Firmware Engineer, you will become one of the caretakers for a critical piece of Tibbo’s firmware – the Tibbo OS (TioS). You can read about TiOS here: https://docs.tibbo.com/intro_tios.

TiOS runs on STM32 microcontrollers and is not based on any third-party kernel. With very few exceptions, the entirety of the TiOS code base was written by Tibbo. Hence, you can think of TiOS as “bare-metal firmware.”

Here is a small sampling of what you might be asked to do:

• Upgrade the project to the new version of Keil uVision
• Port the project to a different STM32 microcontroller or another vendor’s chip
• Integrate a different TLS library
• Implement support for a new Wi-Fi/Bluetooth chip
• And so on – you get the picture!

In addition to specific tasks, such as the ones listed above, you will be expected to engage in “gardening and beautification.” Many code parts can be made neater, arranged better, or regrouped more logically. This is the “constant gardener” job, as weeding must never stop!

We cannot stress enough how low-level some of this work gets to be at times. We do not use the HALs offered by ST. Therefore, a lot of low-level “driver” things, such as the code for handling UARTs, were developed by us. You must be comfortable with bare-metal debugging of time-sensitive chunks of code. TiOS prioritizes reliability over features. It doesn’t have many things, but the things it has must work without fail.

Finally, to do this job effectively, you must be familiar with the hardware side of things. Sometimes, you’ll just have to grab a scope and debug everything together – the code, the “signals,” the adjacent hardware!

In summary, here are the essential skills you will ideally need for this job:

• Substantial C programming experience for STM32 microcontrollers
• At least some awareness of the ARM assembly language
• Experience in designing and debugging multi-threaded, event-based systems
• Good working knowledge of Keil uVision V4 and V5
• Packet-level understanding of network protocols, such as ARP, UDP, DHCP, TCP, HTTP, etc.
• Experience in integrating TLS libraries, such as MbedTLS, WolfSSL, or CycloneSSL
• Substantial experience with serial communications – UART, SPI, I2C, etc.
• Good working understanding of STM hardware and typical peripherals – IO lines, interrupts, serial flash chips, and so on.

As a workplace, Tibbo is a rather peculiar animal. We are a Taiwanese corporation with a very un-Taiwanese, egalitarian management style. This said, we demand an appropriate degree of execution discipline. This is not a hobby club, and if it was, we would be charging for admission.

The Company is highly diverse – as an illustration, consider all the countries our past and present employees are calling home: Canada, Egypt, France, Germany, Iran, Ireland, Nepal, Netherlands, Panama, Philippines, Russia, St. Vincent, Taiwan, UK, US, and Venezuela.

As our Senior Firmware Developer, you may choose to work remotely or in person.

For an in-person arrangement, you will need to work out of our Taipei office. Details:

• Our In-person workers are salaried employees.
• We will help you relocate, obtain a work permit if necessary (subject to meeting the Taiwan government’s requirements for skilled foreign labor), and settle in.
• You will be offered a three-year contract specifying your monthly income and completion bonus.
• You will be entitled to all the benefits local employees are entitled to. This includes a very nice national medical insurance Taiwan extends to all its permanent residents.
• You will commit to only working for Tibbo during the entire contract. Think of this arrangement as a “three-year-long exclusive gig.”
• This is a perfect opportunity to immerse yourself in Taiwanese Chinese culture: You will get a chance to learn Mandarin, savor amazing foods, experience the hustle and bustle of our cities, and partake of the fantastic natural beauty of this island. Many fascinating Asian nations are a very short fight away as well. This stretch is going to look good on your resume!

If we agree on a remote working arrangement:

• Remote work is only open to persons residing outside of Taiwan.
• Our remote workers are independent contractors.
• Although there is no fixed monthly pay, as a contractor focusing on Tibbo’s assignments, you can get paid every few weeks (subject to achieving pre-agreed milestones). You can think of this arrangement as “quasi-permanent freelancing.”
• You will still need to visit our Taipei office for short periods of time (30-60 days) at least once and, preferably, twice a year.
• When outside of Taiwan, your work hours must intersect with our workday to a degree sufficient for necessary interpersonal communications. We are not going to adjust to your schedule. You will have to adjust to ours.
• When in Taipei, you must follow our standard work schedule (Monday-Friday, 9 am - 6 pm).
• We will cover your traveling expenses during your visits. This will include tickets, per diem, and the necessary insurance.

There is also a third path, where you start by working for us remotely and then transition into an in-person role. Some of our best employees have followed this path.

Interested? Get in touch: dima@tibbo.com.