Embedded Software Placement
Based: High Wycombe
Type: Full-time, 12-month placement
Salary: £26250 pa
We’re looking for a curious and enthusiastic person to join our embedded software team for a year.
You'll work alongside experienced engineers on real products, gaining hands-on experience across a wide range of software, hardware, and development tooling projects. We value people who enjoy understanding how things work, solving difficult problems, and learning new technologies.
You will work with other engineers with the Embedded Software team as well as across Hardware, QA and Production Engineering, with opportunities to be involved with multi-disciplinary product development across Focusrite, Focusrite Pro and Novation.
Core responsibilities include:
- Collaborating with the team to deliver embedded software features in our current projects
- Developing tools, scripts and automation to improve engineering workflows and product development efficiency
- Assisting in the investigation, debugging and testing of software running on real hardware
- Contributing to the maintenance of our products and systems
- Taking ownership of your learning and adapting quickly in response to feedback
What we’re looking for:
- A keen interest in firmware and embedded software development
- Curiosity about how technology works and enthusiasm for learning new skills
- Strong problem-solving skills and a practical, hands-on approach to debugging technical issues
- Experience programming in C/C++, with some familiarity of Python
- Awareness of software engineering practices such as version control, build and test automation, or continuous integration
- Good technical communication skills and the ability to work collaboratively with other engineers
- An interest in audio and music technology and the products we create
We'd love to hear about projects you've worked on, whether personal, academic, open-source, or extracurricular. This might include software, electronics, music technology, home automation, robotics, maker projects, or anything else you've built or explored out of curiosity. Tell us what you built, the challenges you encountered, how you approached solving them, and what you learned along the way. These experiences often tell us far more about your interests and approach to engineering than a list of technologies or programming languages.
The strongest candidates are usually people who enjoy understanding how things work, aren't afraid to tackle unfamiliar problems, and can demonstrate examples of things they've built, fixed, improved, or taught themselves.
About the Focusrite Group
Doing a 12-month placement at the Focusrite Group is like becoming one of the family. A rapidly growing, global family. We’re focused on providing opportunities for everyone and anyone to enjoy creating music.
Our placements are very popular, and that’s mainly because you can really get stuck in during your year with us. We want you to help develop our products, market our brands, speak to our customers and make us better. A lot of our previous placement candidates are now full-time employees.
All placements last for 12-months. We pay you £26250 per year (£28900 for London-based roles), and you get to share some of the same benefits as our permanent employees.
Our brands, Focusrite, Focusrite Pro, Novation, Ampify, ADAM Audio, Martin Audio, Optimal Audio, Linea Research, Sequential, Oberheim, Sonnox, OutBoard and TiMax come together around a common mission to remove barriers to creativity.
We work hard. We are professional. And we play hard too. We select really, really talented and passionate people. And we absolutely love our work. So if you think you can bring something new to the mix, we look forward to hearing from you.
Please apply for as many of our placements as you wish.
Timetable for applications:
Deadline to apply: 27th November 2026
Interviews: December 2026 – February 2027
Offers made by: 26th February 2027
As an equal opportunity employer, we encourage people to apply regardless of religion, ethnic background, nationality, sexual orientation or gender identity. We recognise the diversity shortcomings of our industry and are committed to driving change. Equally, we recognise the major impact that climate change is having on our world and work every day towards being industry leaders in a carbon neutral future.
Skills Required
- Interest in firmware and embedded software development
- Curiosity about technology and enthusiasm for learning new skills
- Strong problem-solving skills and a practical, hands-on approach to debugging technical issues
- Experience programming in C/C++
- Familiarity with Python
- Awareness of software engineering practices including version control, build and test automation, or continuous integration
- Good technical communication and collaborative engineering skills
- Interest in audio and music technology
- Examples of personal, academic, open-source, or extracurricular projects
What We Do
We’ll be honest – Focusrite is a pretty great place to work. Incorporating both the Focusrite and Novation brands, we make music easy to make, from bedroom DJs to the greatest show on earth. Everyone who works here has an enormous passion for music: as it says on our website, sound is everything. We take that very seriously – though we have a lot of fun doing it. As the number one selling audio interface brand worldwide, Focusrite has an illustrious, prestigious, and, let’s face it, cool history. Alongside Novation, the hardware and software that we develop plays an instrumental (see what we did there?) role in shaping the sound of modern music. From amateur to pro, our goal is to help musicians to make their music the very best it can be. Music has always been an exciting thing to be involved with, and that’s not about to change. We embrace its evolution, and that means being open to new ideas. Our whole business is structured to let everyone contribute and be heard at all levels, and we make sure it’s a fun place to work. Company hack-days, external visits – we’re all about innovation, fresh thinking and great, great products. (Plus, you get a free lunch in the canteen. No really.) We work hard. We are professional. We select really, really talented people. And we absolutely love our work. So if you think you can bring something new to the mix, we’ll be looking forward to hearing from you.
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