Sr. Firmware & Systems Engineer

Description

 AEM (Advanced Environmental Monitoring) is the global leader in innovative mission critical weather, wildfire and water monitoring and intelligence solutions. We aim to be the world’s essential source for environmental insights – enabling decisive action and positive outcomes for our customers and their constituents. Our family of innovators offers world-class hydrometeorological technologies and services, including sensors, dataloggers, telemetry, and advanced analytics and software. Our technology and services empower the communities and organizations to survive – and thrive – in the face of escalating environmental risks.  

Van Essen Instruments, an AEM brand, was founded in 1938 by Cornelis van Essen in Delft, Netherlands. In the early 1990s, Van Essen began to offer standard water related equipment such as standalone dataloggers, which used external sensors and flow meters for open channels. We also offer telemetric solutions. Since the deployment of the first Diver, Van Essen sold over 200,000 dataloggers worldwide. Its commitment to quality and performance has established Van Essen Instruments as one of the premier brands in the industry. Van Essen has its headquarters in the Netherlands (Delft), and sales locations in Canada and the US. For more information, please visit www.vanessen.com. 

We are seeking a Senior Firmware & Systems Engineer to take ownership of firmware design and integration across Van Essen’s product portfolio. This is a hands-on technical leadership role responsible for developing secure embedded systems, supporting production, and ensuring compliance with European cybersecurity regulations (RED and NIS2).The position owns all firmware development at Van Essen and acts as a liaison between Van Essen Instruments (Delft) and Lambrecht Meteo (Göttingen, Germany) for hardware, testing, security, and certification alignment. The ideal candidate combines deep embedded experience with strong cross-disciplinary coordination skills, ensuring that firmware, hardware, and production systems operate seamlessly together.

Job Responsibilities:

Firmware Ownership and Development

• Lead hands-on development for embedded environmental monitoring and telemetry systems.
• Design, implement, and maintain secure firmware including bootloaders, data acquisition, telemetry interfaces, and OTA update mechanisms.
• Conduct board bring-up, debugging, and hardware validation for new products.
• Integrate cryptographic mechanisms (AES, ECC) to support secure communication and firmware update paths.
• Evaluate and contribute to the transition toward certificate-based authentication and Mutual TLS (mTLS) for end-to-end device security.
• Ensure all firmware aligns with RED and NIS2 cybersecurity requirements and internal security standards.

Testing, Production, and Manufacturing Support

• Work directly with manufacturing partners to install, test, and maintain firmware programming and production test systems.
• Develop and maintain automated and manual test procedures for firmware validation (LabVIEW, Python, or similar).
• Provide sustaining engineering support for existing Diver-line products in production.
• Collaborate with AEM’s hardware and test engineering teams on test-fixture design, validation, and deployment.

Cross-Functional Collaboration

• Act as the primary firmware representative for Van Essen Instruments within AEM’s wider engineering organization.
• Coordinate closely with hardware engineering, software engineering, product management, and compliance teams to define      requirements, schedules, and deliverables.
• Partner with Lambrecht Meteo (Göttingen) for hardware, testing, security, and certification alignment.
• Support QA and compliance documentation to meet RED and NIS2 expectations.

Project and Process Leadership

• Plan and coordinate firmware development milestones and release activities.
• Maintain firmware repositories in GitHub Enterprise using CI/CD and release-control practices.
• Contribute to design reviews, risk assessments, and cybersecurity audits.
• Guide internal and external collaborators in secure coding, testing, and manufacturing practices.

This job description may not be inclusive of all assigned duties, responsibilities, or aspects of the job described, and may be amended at any time at the sole discretion of the Employer. 

Requirements

• Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, Embedded Systems, or equivalent experience.
• 10+ years of professional experience in embedded firmware development, including production and test support.
• Extensive experience developing for the TI MSP430 family, including low-power data loggers, sensor interfaces, and peripheral integration.
• Proven experience with bootloaders, secure firmware update mechanisms, and cryptographic integration (AES, ECC).
• Strong understanding of European cybersecurity compliance, including RED (2014/53/EU) and NIS2.
• Experience with hardware bring-up, schematic review, and board-level debugging.
• Familiarity with manufacturing test systems, fixture deployment, and production troubleshooting.
• Experience with version control, CI/CD, and release management (GitHub Enterprise or similar).
• Excellent documentation, analytical, and communication skills in English.

Preferred Experience:

• Background in environmental monitoring or data-acquisition products.
• Experience with cellular and telemetry modules (Telit LE910 or comparable).
• Expertise in C/C++, RTOS or bare-metal systems (FreeRTOS, TI-RTOS, etc.).
• Knowledge of LabVIEW or Python for automated testing.
• Familiarity with Azure IoT Hub or AWS IoT Core integration.
• Working knowledge of Dutch.
• Experience operating in Agile or hybrid development environments.

Additional Information:

• This is an on-site opportunity that must be performed from our offices in Delft, the Netherlands.  
• Must be eligible to work in the Netherlands without company sponsorship, now or in the future, for employment-based work authorization. 
• A reasonable estimate of the current salary range for this position is EUR 70,000 to EUR 90,000 annually. Please note that the salary information is a general guideline only. AEM considers a wide range of factors such as (but not limited to) scope and responsibilities of the position, candidate's work experience, education, licensure and certifications, key skills as well as other market and business considerations when extending an offer. The disclosed range estimate has not been adjusted for the applicable geographic differential associated with the location at which the position may be filled. 

This position will accept applications on an ongoing basis and will be closed once the position is filled.   AEM is an Equal Opportunity Employer.