Company Overview
Ambiq is on a mission to enable intelligence everywhere — powering the AI edge revolution with the world's lowest-power semiconductor solutions.
Built on our proprietary sub- and near-threshold technology, our chips deliver multi-fold improvements in energy efficiency without costly process scaling. Since 2010, we've shipped over 290 million units to customers building smarter wearables, medical devices, IoT products, and AI-powered edge applications.
Our cross-functional teams span design, research, development, production, marketing, sales, and operations across Austin, Hsinchu, Shanghai, Shenzhen, and Singapore. We move fast, tackle hard problems, and create space for people to grow through complex, meaningful work that shapes the future of technology.
We're looking for self-motivated, creative problem-solvers who are eager to push technological limits and make a real impact in energy efficiency.
At Ambiq, we live by five values: Innovate. Collaborate. Focus. Learn. Achieve.
If that's you, join us — the intelligence everywhere revolution starts here.
This role will be on-site 5 days a week in NW Austin.
Scope
As the Director of MCU Software, you will lead the execution, quality, and delivery of Ambiq’s AmbiqSuite SDK across current and next-generation ARM Cortex-M–based MCU platforms. This role is responsible for managing the end-to-end software development lifecycle — from architectural implementation through customer deployment — ensuring high-quality, reliable SDK releases aligned with silicon program schedules.
This leader works closely with Architecture, Silicon Design, Validation, Applications Engineering, Field Engineering, Marketing, and Sales to coordinate feature development, resolve technical dependencies, and support successful product launches. The Director serves as a customer advocate to ensure SDK usability, robustness, power efficiency, and performance meet Ambiq’s standards.
The role combines organizational leadership with deep technical engagement in embedded real-time systems. The Director is accountable for development execution, process discipline, release readiness, and continuous improvement of engineering practices. This position establishes a strong quality culture and ensures consistent, predictable software delivery for Cortex-M–class devices.
Responsibilities
- Collaborate with the other MCU and Radio software leaders to support the development and releases of the AmbiqSuite SDK across multiple ARM Cortex-M MCU product lines.
- Drive alignment of software development schedules with silicon program milestones for the features assigned to the team.
- Oversee day-to-day engineering operations, ensuring on-time, high-quality software releases.
- Ensure robust support for embedded real-time operating systems, including Zephyr and FreeRTOS.
- Maintain effective development processes, CI/CD workflows, defect tracking, and quality metrics, while looking for areas of improvement.
- Collaborate with cross-functional teams to resolve technical dependencies and program risks.
- Serve as the escalation point for complex technical and customer issues related to MCU software.
- Build, mentor, and manage a high-performing embedded software team, including performance management and career development.
- Support customer-facing teams to ensure timely issue resolution and strong software enablement.
- Provide regular status reporting on execution progress, risks, and quality metrics to executive management.
Qualifications
- BSEE, BSCE, or equivalent technical degree; advanced degree preferred.
- 15+ years of industry experience, including 10+ years leading embedded software development for semiconductor or device platforms (consumer, medical, industrial, or automotive).
- Proven experience managing embedded software teams delivering production-quality SDKs or platform software.
- Deep technical expertise in ARM Cortex-M architecture and low-power MCU systems.
- Strong hands-on experience developing in C/C++ for embedded real-time environments, including Zephyr and FreeRTOS.
- Strong understanding of system-level debugging, hardware/software integration, and power-aware design considerations.
- Hands-on familiarity with lab instrumentation (oscilloscopes, logic analyzers, protocol analyzers, wireless test equipment).
- Experience implementing structured development practices, including Agile methodologies, CI/CD pipelines, automated testing frameworks, and defect tracking systems (e.g., JIRA).
- Familiarity with Python is a plus.
- Experience leveraging modern AI-assisted software development tools (e.g., Cursor, Codex, or similar) is desirable.
- Strong cross-functional collaboration and communication skills.
- Demonstrated ability to manage multiple complex programs in a fast-paced, globally distributed engineering environment.
**Must be currently authorized to work in the United States for any employer. We do not sponsor or take over sponsorship of employment visas (now or in the future) for this role.
Skills Required
- BSEE, BSCE, or equivalent technical degree; advanced degree preferred
- 15+ years of industry experience
- 10+ years leading embedded software development
- Proven experience managing embedded software teams delivering production-quality SDKs
- Deep technical expertise in ARM Cortex-M architecture
- Strong hands-on experience developing in C/C++ for embedded environments
- Familiarity with lab instrumentation
- Experience implementing structured development practices
- Familiarity with Python is a plus
- Experience leveraging modern AI-assisted software development tools
Ambiq Compensation & Benefits Highlights
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Healthcare Strength — Health coverage is characterized as strong, with medical, dental, and vision included and plan quality described favorably. Additional supports such as FSA and related wellness-oriented perks are referenced, reinforcing overall healthcare breadth.
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Fair & Transparent Compensation — Pay is considered decent-to-good and roughly market-aligned overall, with certain roles described as competitive within the market. Total rewards span base, bonus, and equity, supporting a perception of balanced compensation.
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Leave & Time Off Breadth — Paid time off is part of the core package and generous parental leave is referenced by external profiles. Together these elements indicate a reasonably comprehensive time-off offering.
Ambiq Insights
What We Do
Ambiq makes unprecedented energy-efficient SoCs and ultra-low power platform solutions that enable edge AI on billions of battery-powered devices. Our mission is to put intelligence everywhere by delivering the lowest-power semiconductor solutions on the planet. With SPOT® technology and the Apollo SoC family, Ambiq empowers innovators to build smarter, longer-lasting wearables, IoT, smart home, healthcare, and industrial devices. Ambiq has helped leading manufacturers worldwide develop products that last weeks on a single charge (rather than days) while delivering a maximum feature set in compact industrial designs. Ambiq's goal is to take Artificial Intelligence (AI) where it has never gone before in mobile and portable devices, using Ambiq's advanced ultra-low power system on chip (SoC) solutions. Ambiq has shipped more than 200 million units as of March 2023. The next generation of AI will not depend on constant cloud connectivity. It will run directly on ultra-low-power silicon in wearables, sensors, and embedded systems. At Ambiq, we design and ship production silicon that enables: Real-time inference on constrained devices Models optimized to run in tens of KB Extreme power efficiency for battery-operated systems Deep hardware/software co-design This is not research. It’s deployed technology.
Why Work With Us
Direct influence on silicon architecture Smaller, high-impact teams Hardware/software co-design in real time Faster technical decision cycles Visible ownership at Staff & Director level Austin-based collaboration culture
Ambiq Offices
OnSite Workspace
Building silicon and embedded AI systems requires tight collaboration across firmware, hardware, validation, and architecture teams. We believe the hardest engineering problems are solved through direct, daily collaboration.