Software & Firmware Engineering Experts

What you'll do

This is the software side of a four-listing Mercor hardware family, and it is specifically about code that touches metal: embedded firmware, FPGA and RTL designs, flight software and the test automation that exercises real hardware. General software engineers are not the target.

Per the ad, you review firmware, RTL, flight software, test frameworks and hardware interfaces, and judge the architecture and implementation trade-offs that decide whether they work on a real board: real-time performance, timing, memory and compute limits, concurrency, fault handling and hardware/software integration. You look for the failures that bite in bring-up, such as race conditions, timing violations, wrong assumptions about an interface and resource exhaustion. You also develop or review engineering problems with reference implementations, test cases and evaluation criteria.

For the lab, the point is models that reason about embedded and hardware-connected systems as an experienced firmware engineer does, which is a notably weak area for today's models.

Who qualifies

• 5+ years in software, firmware, FPGA or embedded engineering, with at least 3 recent years hands-on on real hardware (not solely program or people management)
• Having been the responsible engineer for production hardware-connected software, from architecture through bring-up, verification and deployment
• Deep expertise in at least one of: embedded firmware and real-time systems; FPGA/RTL design and verification; flight software and safety- or mission-critical systems; hardware test automation and HIL infrastructure
• The relevant stack for your specialty, which the ad lists as C/C++, Python, RTOS and bare metal, device drivers, bootloaders, embedded Linux, SPI/I²C/UART/CAN/Ethernet, Verilog/SystemVerilog/VHDL and FPGA toolchains
• Real debugging: JTAG/SWD, logic analysers, oscilloscopes, simulators and emulators, HIL/SIL rigs, automated test equipment

Hardware-company experience is strongly preferred, across aerospace and defence, space, automotive, semiconductors, consumer electronics, robotics and medical devices; the ad adds SpaceX, AMD and Amazon to the example list its siblings share.

Application involves a resume, Mercor's domain expert interview, a work authorisation step and the "Hardware Engineering SME" screening shared across the family.

What it pays

$100–120 per hour, paid weekly via Stripe or Wise. For embedded engineers that is strong contract money, and it is well above Mercor's general Engineering and Software Domain Expert listing at $65–105. Hours and duration are not stated.

Worth knowing

Good:

• Aimed at firmware and FPGA engineers, a group few AI training listings target
• Strong rate, weekly payment, no country restriction stated
• The ad says the work involves no access to any employer's confidential information

Less good:

• Pure application or web developers will not fit; the hardware experience is the requirement
• Mercor cannot support H-1B or STEM OPT candidates
• No hours, volume or duration published; projects can end early
• Independent contractor: no benefits, your own tax to manage

About this listing

Posted by Mercor on 26 September 2026 and read the next day. It shares rate, terms and screening with its siblings for systems and integration, mechanical and electrical and hardware engineers. See Mercor.