Firmware engineers write the low-level code that tells hardware how to function. These specialists operate at what’s called the “bare metal” level between physical chips and the user-facing software people actually interact with. They handle bootloaders, power-on sequences and the deterministic control loops that govern hardware behavior. On average, firmware engineers make about $167,000 a year, according to ZipRecruiter.
The following companies are industry-leading employers hiring the engineers who build the specialized firmware inside today’s most advanced processors, electric vehicles, satellites, flight-control systems and robotics.
Top Companies Hiring Firmware Engineers
- Nvidia
- Apple
- SpaceX
- Tesla
- Qualcomm
Top Companies Hiring Firmware Engineers
Headquarters: Hawthorne, California
Founded: 2002
Company size: 15k+ employees
Industry: Aerospace, Satellites, Telecommunications
SpaceX firmware engineers write hard real-time, fault-tolerant C++ for bare-metal flight computers and Starlink phased-array antenna hardware. These roles focus on power electronics controls, FPGA design, hardware bring-up, JTAG debugging, logic analyzers and hardware-in-the-loop testing for its rockets, satellites and spacecraft.
Headquarters: Cupertino, California
Founded: 1976
Company size: 160k+ employees
Industry: Consumer Electronics, Semiconductors, Software
Firmware engineers at Apple work in the pre-OS layer across more than 2.5 billion active devices. They build secure enclave microcode, device drivers, DMA, interrupt schemes and wireless stacks for Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and Thread. Their work helps A-series and M-series chips deliver strong performance per watt across products like the iPhone and Vision Pro.
Headquarters: Bethesda, Maryland
Founded: 1995
Company size: 120k+ employees
Industry: Defense, Aerospace
Firmware engineers at Lockheed Martin build hardened embedded systems for stealth aircraft, missile defense, radar and space platforms. Working on mission-critical defense systems under extreme conditions, their work spans secure boot, RTOS integration, FPGA-based signal processing, VHDL, Verilog and hard real-time C++ for systems such as AESA radar and autonomous flight computers.
Headquarters: North Reading, Massachusetts
Founded: 2012
Company size: 14k+ employees
Industry: Warehouse Automation, Logistics, Robotics
To date, Amazon Robotics has deployed one million robots to move products throughout its global network of fulfillment centers. Firmware engineers there build the safety-critical software that controls this autonomous robotic fleet. They work with real-time control loops, motor-drive firmware, low-level drivers, hardware abstraction layers, C/C++ and Rust for resource-constrained systems.
Headquarters: Santa Clara, California
Founded: 1968
Company size: 80k+ employees
Industry: Semiconductors, Computing Infrastructure
Intel’s firmware engineers write the foundational code that lets processors communicate with memory, peripherals and operating systems. The company’s teams work on UEFI BIOS, platform firmware, microcode, C++, Rust, PCIe, ACPI and silicon enablement for everything from PCs and servers to AI accelerators.
Headquarters: Santa Clara, California
Founded: 1993
Company size: 40k+ employees
Industry: Semiconductors, AI Infrastructure, Automotive Technology
Nvidia’s firmware engineers build the silicon-enablement layer that brings Blackwell-class GPUs from cold boot to production-ready AI infrastructure. The work here spans SoC initialization, memory subsystems, ARM M-class microcontrollers, Zephyr or FreeRTOS and secure communication across GPUs, switches and sensors.
Headquarters: Arlington, Virginia
Founded: 1916
Company size: 170k+ employees
Industry: Aerospace, Defense
Boeing is the world’s largest aerospace company. Its firmware engineers develop embedded avionics and board-level software for its 14,000 commercial fleet and defense aerospace systems. The work covers hardware bring-up, board support packages, custom kernel work, bootloaders and flight-ready software built to meet strict aviation safety standards.
Headquarters: San Diego, California
Founded: 1985
Company size: 50k+ employees
Industry: Semiconductors, Telecommunications, Automotive Technology
Qualcomm chips are built into more than 5 billion devices worldwide. Its firmware allows the company’s signature Snapdragon SoCs to communicate across mobile, automotive and edge devices. Engineers there work on physical-layer modem firmware, hardware abstraction layers, bootloaders, secure boot, SoC power-state management, Linux kernel bring-up and device tree configuration.
Headquarters: Austin, Texas
Founded: 2003
Company size: 100k+ employees
Industry: Electric Vehicles, Robotics, Energy
Tesla firmware engineers write the deterministic code behind motor controls, battery-management systems, high-voltage safety loops and CAN/LIN communication stacks. Their work supports its electric vehicles and so-called Full Self-Driving platform, charging ports and Optimus humanoids, where deployment-ready code and sub-millisecond latency are central to performance.
Headquarters: Fairfax, Virginia
Founded: 1899
Company size: 12k+ employees
Industry: Defense, Communications, Aerospace
General Dynamics Mission Systems’ firmware engineers work close to the hardware behind secure battlefield communications, satellite payloads and classified defense platforms. That means writing microcontroller code, cryptographic firmware and networking logic, then using JTAG, logic analyzers and low-level interfaces like I2C and SPI to make sure sensitive data can move reliably across mission-critical systems.
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