Hardware Engineer Lead

About Us

At pūrtec, we are building the future of Environmental Quality Intelligence (EQi™) — bringing real-time environmental insights to the spaces where people live, work, and thrive. From luxury hospitality to health-critical facilities, our IoT-powered platform is creating a new category in building wellness and human experience intelligence.

We’re entering an exciting stage of growth, preparing to scale our consumer-facing products and enterprise offerings across hospitality, healthcare, and real estate verticals. To do this, we need a proven Hardware Engineer Lead who can turn complex requirements into an embedded IoT technology.

Role Overview

The Embedded Firmware Engineer will design and develop firmware and low-level control software for environmental monitoring or control devices, such as air quality sensors, weather stations, or energy-efficient IoT products. This engineer will work as a self-reliant individual contributor at the intersection of electronics and software, developing high-reliability embedded systems capable of continuous autonomous operation in variable environmental conditions.

* End-to-End PCB Design for Cloud-Connected IoT: Lead the complete hardware development lifecycle, including schematic capture, component selection, and full PCB layout for connectivity boards and environmental sensor modules. Expertise required in designing for secure and reliable cloud integration using protocols such as MQTT and services like AWS IoT.

* Critical Power Management and DC/Battery Optimization: Drive the design, testing, and verification of high-efficiency power management circuits. This includes deep expertise in analyzing and optimizing DC power and battery power consumption to ensure low-power operation and extended battery life for devices connecting to the cloud.

* Verification, Production, and Connectivity Assurance: Deliver fully verified development boards, followed by managing production drops (first and second versions). Responsible for developing and executing rigorous test plans that specifically cover sensor performance, signal integrity, and robust AWS IoT connectivity, ensuring there are no power, ground, or communication stability issues throughout the product lifecycle.

What You’ll Do

• Design, implement, and maintain firmware for microcontroller-based environmental monitoring systems using C.
• Integrate and manage sensors for temperature, humidity, particulate matter, pressure, or CO₂ and ensure accurate calibration and signal processing.
• Develop efficient real-time control and communication routines under an RTOS (e.g., FreeRTOS, CMSIS-RTOS2, or Zephyr).
• Implement low-power modes, sleep scheduling, and data acquisition strategies for battery devices.
• Interface with hardware peripherals via communication protocols such as I²C, SPI, UART, and Modbus.
• Design and maintain bootloaders, OTA (Over-The-Air) update mechanisms, and fault recovery logic.
• Collaborate with hardware engineers on PCB bring-up, debugging, and validation using lab instruments (oscilloscopes, logic analyzers).
• Develop unit tests, system integration tests, and environmental reliability validation processes.
• Contribute to robust documentation for firmware design, hardware-software interface specifications, and test procedures.
• Work closely with firmware team to ensure accurate telemetry data transmission and synchronization over BLE and Wi-Fi.

What We’re Looking For

• Bachelor’s degree in computer science, computer engineering, embedded systems, or equivalent discipline.
• At least 3 years of experience in embedded firmware development with ARM Cortex-M architectures or similar microcontrollers.
• Solid proficiency in C, with good understanding of memory management and interrupt-driven programming.
• Experience with RTOS development (FreeRTOS, CMSIS-RTX5, or ThreadX) including task scheduling, synchronization, and ISR integration.
• Familiarity with sensor integration, analog/digital interface design, and signal conditioning principles.
• Familiarity with STM32CubeIDE configuration and code generation.
• Experience using version control (Git) and continuous integration tools.
• Strong debugging skills using oscilloscopes, logic analyzers, and JTAG/SWD interfaces.
• Excellent analytical and problem-solving skills with attention to detail.
• Strong communication and documentation skills suitable for cross-functional coordination.

Ways You Can Stand Out

• Experience developing IoT or environmental sensing devices with cloud connectivity (MQTT, HTTPs, AWS IoT, or Azure IoT Hub).
• Familiarity with wireless protocols such as BLE or cellular IoT.

Why Join Us?

• Be part of a mission-driven company redefining environmental wellness and indoor intelligence.
• Shape the launch of cutting-edge IoT products and a category-defining SaaS platform.
• Work alongside visionary leadership with experience scaling consumer and enterprise brands.

Job Types: Full-time, Part-time, Contract

Pay: $90.00 - $110.00 per hour

Benefits:

• Flexible schedule

Work Location: Hybrid remote in Lake Forest, CA 92630