Principal Firmware Engineer - Western Digital

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Western Digital is an equal opportunity employer. Western Digital does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, ancestry, religion (including religious dress and grooming standards), sex (including pregnancy, childbirth or related medical conditions, breastfeeding or related medical conditions), gender (including a person’s gender identity, gender expression, and gender-related appearance and behavior, whether or not stereotypically associated with the person’s assigned sex at birth), age, national origin, sexual orientation, medical condition, marital status (including domestic partnership status), physical disability, mental disability, medical condition, genetic information, protected medical and family care leave, Civil Air Patrol status, military and veteran status, or other legally protected characteristics. We also prohibit harassment of any individual on any of the characteristics listed above. Our non-discrimination policy applies to all aspects of employment. We comply with the laws and regulations set forth in the "Equal Employment Opportunity is the Law" poster.

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ESSENTIAL DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES 

• Define overall system firmware architecture for implementing high performance HDD actuator control on dynamic control platforms
• Define the firmware & associated tool designs including processes for build, test and benchmarking working together with stakeholders and development teams
• Implement and demonstrate prototype firmware designs on target hardware platforms, while working closely with internal and external stakeholders
• Conduct demonstrations of end-to-end HDD dynamic control on simulated and field programmable gate array (FPGA) prototyping platforms for internal and external stakeholders
• Propose and specify novel hardware accelerators and firmware optimizations for use with system-on-chip (SoC) architectures
• Work closely with all stakeholders on the implementation of HDD real-time motion and parameter control microarchitecture, instruction set architecture, firmware architecture & tool chain associated
• Participate in team meetings and influence hardware, firmware & associated tooling development with enough communication for geographically distributed international development team to support business and technical objectives
• Negotiate with stakeholders about priorities
• Ensure strong execution of identified hardware, firmware & associated tools strategy

REQUIRED

• Bachelor's Degree or equivalent. Master's degree or relevant certification desirable. PhD or specialist or relevant certification with platform architecture highly desirable
• 10+ years of experience in embedded firmware architecture and development
• Experience with linear algebra applications in digital filtering, convolution, digital control and digital signal processing (DSP) systems.  
• Experience in modeling, analysis and simulation of linear algebra/Digital Control Systems/DSP solutions using Matlab/Python/C++
• Experience in firmware architecture and design of DSP systems/accelerators targeted for FPGAs and application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs)
• Experience in architecture and design of embedded systems using Xilinx Microblaze, ARM and RiscV CPUs, system partitioning, co-simulation and testing
• Rich experience programming in C, C++, Assembly language, System Verilog
• Experience in Linux, Docker, GNU GCC/LLVM Compilers, GDB, Make utilities
• Experience scripting in Matlab, Python and Bash.  Tcl/Tk, Perl is a plus
• Experience as project leader with strong technical leadership and commitment to results
• Experience working in Agile teams with experience in roles such as Scrum Master (SM) or Product Owner (PO) desirable

SKILLS

Excellent communication, interpersonal and collaborative skills (including presentation skills) across worldwide engineering team, in English

Western Digital is committed to providing equal opportunities to all applicants and employees and will not discriminate based on their race, color, ancestry, religion (including religious dress and grooming standards), sex (including pregnancy, childbirth or related medical conditions, breastfeeding or related medical conditions), gender (including a person’s gender identity, gender expression, and gender-related appearance and behavior, whether or not stereotypically associated with the person’s assigned sex at birth), age, national origin, sexual orientation, medical condition, marital status (including domestic partnership status), physical disability, mental disability, medical condition, genetic information, protected medical and family care leave, Civil Air Patrol status, military and veteran status, or other legally protected characteristics. We also prohibit harassment of any individual on any of the characteristics listed above. Our non-discrimination policy applies to all aspects of employment. We comply with the laws and regulations set forth in the Equal Employment Opportunity is the Law poster.

Western Digital thrives on the power and potential of diversity. As a global company, we believe the most effective way to embrace the diversity of our customers and communities is to mirror it from within. We believe the fusion of various perspectives results in the best outcomes for our employees, our company, our customers, and the world around us. We are committed to an inclusive environment where every individual can thrive through a sense of belonging, respect and contribution.

Western Digital is committed to offering opportunities to applicants with disabilities and ensuring all candidates can successfully navigate our careers website and our hiring process. Please contact us at jobs.accommodations@wdc.com to advise us of your accommodation request. In your email, please include a description of the specific accommodation you are requesting as well as the job title and requisition number of the position for which you are applying.

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Compensation & Benefits Details

• An employee’s pay position within the salary range may be based on several factors including but not limited to (1) relevant education; qualifications; certifications; and experience; (2) skills, ability, knowledge of the job; (3) performance, contribution and results; (4) geographic location; (5) shift; (6) internal and external equity; and (7) business and organizational needs.
• The salary range is what we believe to be the range of possible compensation for this role at the time of this posting.  We may ultimately pay more or less than the posted range and this range is only applicable for jobs to be performed in California, Colorado, New York or remote jobs that can be performed in California, Colorado and New York.  This range may be modified in the future.
• You will be eligible to participate in Western Digital’s Short-Term Incentive (STI) Plan, which provides incentive awards based on Company and individual performance.  Depending on your role and your performance, you may be eligible to participate in our annual Long-Term Incentive (LTI) program, which consists of restricted stock units (RSUs) or cash equivalents, pursuant to the terms of the LTI plan. Please note that not all roles are eligible to participate in the LTI program, and not all roles are eligible for equity under the LTI plan. RSU awards are also available to eligible new hires, subject to Western Digital’s Standard Terms and Conditions for Restricted Stock Unit Awards.
• We offer a comprehensive package of benefits including paid vacation time; paid sick leave; medical/dental/vision insurance; life, accident and disability insurance; tax-advantaged flexible spending and health savings accounts; employee assistance program; other voluntary benefit programs such as supplemental life and AD&D, legal plan, pet insurance, critical illness, accident and hospital indemnity; tuition reimbursement; transit; the Applause Program, employee stock purchase plan, and the Western Digital Savings 401(k) Plan.
• Note: No amount of pay is considered to be wages or compensation until such amount is earned, vested, and determinable. The amount and availability of any bonus, commission, benefits, or any other form of compensation and benefits that are allocable to a particular employee remains in the Company's sole discretion unless and until paid and may be modified at the Company’s sole discretion, consistent with the law.