Firmware Engineer III (Linux/AOSP)

Flock Safety is the leading safety technology platform, helping communities thrive by taking a proactive approach to crime prevention and security. Our hardware and software suite connects cities, law enforcement, businesses, schools, and neighborhoods in a nationwide public-private safety network. Trusted by over 5,000 communities, 4,500 law enforcement agencies, and 1,000 businesses, Flock delivers real-time intelligence while prioritizing privacy and responsible innovation.

We’re a high-performance, low-ego team driven by urgency, collaboration, and bold thinking. Working at Flock means tackling big challenges, moving fast, and continuously improving. It’s intense but deeply rewarding for those who want to make an impact.

With nearly $700M in venture funding and a $7.5B valuation, we’re scaling intentionally and seeking top talent to help build the impossible. If you value teamwork, ownership, and solving tough problems, Flock could be the place for you.

Flock Safety is looking for a Firmware Engineer to join our Device Firmware Team, a dynamic group renowned for its exceptional engineering talent. We are responsible for all of the code running on thousands of solar-powered devices that are at the heart of our mission, enabling the seamless capture and upload of millions of images and streaming video content to the cloud daily. This role will focus on developing high-quality MCU firmware for existing and next-generation platforms. You will work with key internal stakeholders and external vendors to ensure deliverables meet our development and design bar, develop customizations in the drivers, and collaborate cross-functionally to deliver quality software and firmware.

We're looking for people with:

• A Bachelors, Masters, or Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, Computer Science, or related field with 8+ years experience

• Proven track record of working with a large fleet of connected devices, a good understanding of different phases of their lifecycle and related challenges

• Development experience within embedded systems/firmware design at multiple stages of the product life cycle (prototyping, pre-production engineering validation, release and scaling)

• Experience with MCU firmware development bare-metal and RTOS-based

• Experience with device bring-up within MCU bare metal, RTOS, Linux

• Experience with Android system architecture (HAL, Android Linux Kernel, Android Build System, etc)

• Exposure to developing, testing, and troubleshooting systems using the Controller Area Network (CAN) protocol.

• Proficient in C and C++

• Comfortable working in a Linux-based development environment, including custom tooling, containers, Gerrit/Git, etc

The ideal candidate will have:

• Experience with ARM Cortex Microcontrollers and more specifically, with ST MCU and their development ecosystem is a big plus

• Experience with FreeRTOS or Zephyr is a plus

• Experience with Qualcomm chipset devices is a plus

• Experience with battery-powered/power constrained devices is a plus

• Strong knowledge of Linux internals (process scheduler, memory management, concurrency, synchronization, memory allocation, file system, networking, storage, subsystem architecture)

• Experience developing Linux Kernel drivers for common peripheral bus technologies, including SPI, I2C, UART, is a big plus

• Experience with Kotlin and Android apps development is a plus

Feeling uneasy that you haven’t ticked every box? That’s okay, we’ve felt that way too. Studies have shown women and minorities are less likely to apply unless they meet all qualifications. We encourage you to break the status quo and apply to roles that would make you excited to come to work every day.

We prescribe to 90 day plans and believe that good days lead to good weeks, which lead to good months. This serves as a preview of the 90-day plan you will receive if you were to be hired as a Firmware Engineer at Flock Safety. 

The First 30 Days

• Learn about the firmware software development lifecycle and tools, get your development environment set up, and your build server up and running.

• Learn about different MCU-based and Android-based devices that our team is working on

• Gradually ramp up on each product, deliver a small bug fix or an improvement in the code base.

The First 60 Days 

• Continue making improvements to device firmware.

• Familiarize yourself with firmware-common library, and how it is integrated into existing projects and it’s current roadmap

90 Days & Beyond 

• Make valuable contributions to our firmware-common library, help with its integration into our MCU-based products, identify gaps and needs in the library and collaborate with partners to establish its roadmap.

• Deliver larger-scope fixes and improvements for MCU-based devices and on the Android host side.

In this role, you’ll receive a starting salary between $140,000-$160,000 as well as Flock Safety Stock Options. 

We’re building the impossible, together. To drive innovation through in-person collaboration, we’re prioritizing candidates in our key hubs: Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Denver, Los Angeles, New York City, San Francisco, and Austin. While we value the energy of our hub communities, we embrace remote work and welcome applications from exceptional talent across the United States.

We want our interview process to be a true reflection of our culture: transparent and collaborative. Throughout the interview process, your recruiter will guide you through the next steps and ensure you feel prepared every step of the way. To check out our interview stages and how you should prepare visit experiences on our careers page.

🌴Flexible PTO: We seriously mean it, plus 11 company holidays.

⚕️Fully-paid health benefits plan for employees: including Medical, Dental, and Vision and an HSA match. 

👪Family Leave: All employees receive 12 weeks of 100% paid parental leave. Birthing parents are eligible for an additional 6-8 weeks of physical recovery time.

🍼Fertility & Family Benefits: We have partnered with Maven, a complete digital health benefit for starting and raising a family. In 2025, Flock will provide a $ 50,000-lifetime maximum benefit related to eligible adoption, surrogacy, or fertility expenses.

💖Caregiver Support: We have partnered with Cariloop to provide our employees with caregiver support 

💸Carta Tax Advisor: Employees receive 1:1 sessions with Equity Tax Advisors who can address individual grants, model tax scenarios, and answer general questions. 

💚ERGs: We want all employees to thrive and feel like they belong at Flock. We offer three ERGs today - Women of Flock, Flock Proud, and Melanin Motion. If you are interested in talking to a representative from one of these, please let your recruiter know.

💻WFH Stipend: $150 per month to cover the costs of working from home.

📚Productivity Stipend: $250 per year to use on Audible, Calm, Masterclass, Duolingo, Grammarly and so much more.

🏠Home Office Stipend: A one-time $750 to help you create your dream office.

🐾Pet Insurance: We’ve partnered with Pumpkin to provide insurance for our employee’s fur babies. 

Flock is an equal opportunity employer. We celebrate diverse backgrounds and thoughts and welcome everyone to apply for employment with us. We are committed to fostering an environment that is inclusive, transparent, and collaborative. Mutual respect is central to how Flock operates, and we believe the best solutions come from diverse perspectives, experiences, and skills. We embrace our differences and know that we are stronger working together.

If you need assistance or an accommodation due to a disability, please email us at [email protected]. This information will be treated as confidential and used only to determine an appropriate accommodation for the interview process.

At Flock Safety, we compensate our employees fairly for their work. Base salary is determined by job-related experience, education/training, as well as market indicators. The range above is representative of base salary only and does not include equity, sales bonus plans (when applicable) and benefits. This range may be modified in the future. This job posting may span more than one career level.

Flock Safety is aware of fraudulent individuals and agencies falsely claiming to represent our company. All legitimate communication from Flock Safety will come from an email address ending in @flocksafety.com. We do not make job offers through messaging apps, social platforms, or unauthorized third parties, and we will never request payment or sensitive personal information during the hiring process. If you encounter suspicious outreach related to a Flock Safety role, please report it to [email protected]