Bootloader recovery and failed updates
A practical discussion of failure paths, rollback and recovery.
Read more →For engineering hiring teams
Embedded and firmware recruitment
RunTime helps product companies hire engineers responsible for embedded C/C++, bare-metal and RTOS firmware, peripheral drivers, board bring-up, connectivity, production support and technical leadership.
The hiring problem
A firmware CV rarely shows who could recover the board when it stopped booting.
The same technology list can describe someone who owned a platform architecture or someone who changed a small application layer.
Hiring managers need to understand the engineer’s decisions around interrupts, tasks, shared resources, memory, timing, boot and recovery—not simply whether an RTOS or MCU appears on the CV.
Intermittent faults and production constraints expose depth that polished project descriptions can hide.
Roles we recruit
Relevant roles
- Embedded software engineer
- Firmware engineer
- Bare-metal or RTOS engineer
- Device-driver and BSP engineer
- Board bring-up engineer
- Embedded technical lead or engineering manager
The role determines the required combination. These are not presented as skills every candidate must have.
What we assess
Evidence behind the CV
Assessment is matched to the actual brief. Evidence may include:
- What the engineer personally owned during board bring-up
- Interrupt, task and shared-resource design decisions
- Memory, power and timing constraints they worked within
- How they isolated intermittent hardware and firmware failures
- Bootloader, firmware-update and recovery experience
- Moving prototypes into maintained, testable production firmware
How we search
A search built around the actual work.
We clarify the hardware, firmware boundaries, delivery stage and essential responsibilities; review relevant existing candidates; approach engineers directly; and assess interested people against the real system and role.
What your shortlist contains
Reasons, evidence and open questions.
- Why the person is being recommended
- Evidence relevant to the brief and personal ownership
- Gaps or claims requiring further technical validation
- Location, work rights, remuneration expectations and availability
Illustrative example — not a real candidate or placement.
Example shortlist assessment
- Role being assessed
- Senior embedded Linux and firmware engineer for a connected industrial controller.
- Relevant experience and ownership
- Owned an ARM-based BSP update, two custom peripheral drivers and the production image build. Worked with the hardware lead during first-board bring-up and maintained the field-update path.
- Evidence of technical fit
- Explained the boot chain, a DMA coherency fault isolated with traces and register inspection, and changes made to produce repeatable Yocto builds. Distinguished personal driver work from vendor configuration.
- Gaps and further questions
- No demonstrated safety-certification ownership. Limited recent bare-metal work. Employer should examine kernel-debugging depth and architecture decisions in the technical interview.
- Practical constraints
- Melbourne; Australian work rights; seeking $175k plus super; four weeks’ notice. Details would be confirmed before presentation.
- Why recommend an interview
- Relevant platform ownership and credible debugging evidence align with the immediate brief. The identified gaps are explicit and can be tested by the employer’s technical team.
RunTime’s assessment provides context for interview; it does not replace the employer’s technical evaluation.
Relevant evidence and engineering insights
Read the thinking behind the assessment.
Inherited linker scripts and memory maps
Why low-level ownership matters when inherited systems fail.
Read more →Debugging firmware: techniques for efficient troubleshooting
Existing guidance on firmware fault investigation.
Read more →Frequently asked questions
Practical questions before a search.
Can you distinguish embedded application work from low-level firmware ownership?+
That distinction is part of the brief and assessment. We ask where the candidate worked in the stack, what they designed, what they inherited and how they proved the cause of failures.
Do candidates need every listed technology?+
No. Required experience is defined by the product, team and immediate engineering responsibilities. Adjacent experience can be relevant when the underlying evidence is strong.
Do we need a finished job specification before speaking?+
No. An initial discussion can clarify the role’s responsibilities, constraints and essential experience before the brief is finalised.
Can RunTime work with our existing interview process?+
Yes. RunTime’s assessment adds evidence and context before interview; it does not replace the employer’s technical evaluation or hiring decision.
What commercial terms apply?+
The applicable engagement model and fee are agreed in writing before a search begins. Current general terms are available on the Terms of Business page.
Discuss your hire
Start with the role and the engineering problem.
No finished job specification is required for an initial discussion.