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About the job

We’re ALTEN Technology USA, an engineering company helping clients bring groundbreaking ideas to life—from advancing space exploration and life-saving medical devices to building autonomous electric vehicles. With 3,000+ experts across North America, we partner with leading companies in aerospace, medical devices, robotics, automotive, commercial vehicles, EVs, rail, and more.

As part of the global ALTEN Group—57,000+ engineers in 30 countries—we deliver across the entire product development cycle, from consulting to full project outsourcing.

When you join ALTEN Technology USA, you’ll collaborate on some of the world’s toughest engineering challenges, supported by mentorship, career growth opportunities, and comprehensive benefits. We take pride in fostering a culture where employees feel valued, supported, and inspired to grow.

Workplace : On-Site, 5 days per week Location : Palo Alto, CA Salary : $140-160k

The Lead Software Engineer owns software and validation work on Linux and Android based infotainment and connectivity platforms. You will lead a team that sustains ECUs across several hardware generations. Your engineers will ramp up on the existing codebase, build pipelines, and then enable hardware validation tests.

Responsibilities • Ramp up on the existing codebase, build pipeline, and regression testing • Develop and maintain the software stack for hardware verification and validation on Hypervisor, Linux, and Android systems • Design and run stress tests on CPU, GPU, NPU, and multimedia subsystems to find bottlenecks, thermal limits, and stability issues • Analyze and optimize ECU performance • Support board bring-up, design verification, and debugging with architecture, hardware, and software teams • Train and guide junior engineers • Provide weekly status, risk, and decision documentation to program leadership

Required Qualifications • Bachelor's or Master's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or a related field • 8+ years of embedded software development • Hands-on experience with high-performance SoCs such as Snapdragon, NVIDIA Orin, or MediaTek; automotive-grade SoC experience is a significant plus • Proficiency in Embedded Linux, QNX, and DriveOS, and experience with hypervisor systems such as Type-1 hypervisors, Gunyah, or ACRN • Experience with infotainment or connectivity subsystems such as camera/display, memory/storage, GNSS, UWB, RF, A2B, and Bluetooth audio • Strong C/C++ coding skills • Solid understanding of Linux/Android, kernel configuration, device driver interfaces, and debugging tools • Strong BSP and kernel bring-up expertise (Linux, U-Boot or equivalent): partitioning, device tree, and boot flow for eMMC, UFS, SSD, and DRAM changes • Experience with Lauterbach, oscilloscopes, JTAG, and flashing tools • Understanding of interface and protocol stacks (SPI, I2C, Ethernet, PCIe, CAN) and board bring-up • Scripting experience in Python or shell

Preferred Qualifications • OS internals: process scheduler, memory management, concurrency, synchronization, storage • ARM core and architecture experience • Embedded toolchains: compilers, linkers, linker scripts • Automotive communication protocols (CAN, Ethernet) • CI/CD pipelines for embedded systems • ISO 26262 functional safety awareness

Salary Range • $140,000 - 160,000 • The actual salary offered is dependent on various factors including, but not limited to, location, the candidate’s combination of job-related knowledge, qualifications, skills, education, training, and experience

All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment and will not be discriminated against on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability, protected veteran status, age, genetic information, or pregnancy.

Please beware of job seeker scams and see this important notice on our careers page for more information about our recruiting process.

Compliance Notice: Alten USA is a federal contractor subject to the requirements of the Vietnam Era Veterans’ Readjustment Assistance Act (VEVRAA) and Executive Order 11246. We are an Equal Opportunity Employer and consider all qualified applicants without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability, or veteran status.

Drug Screening Requirement: As a federal contractor, Alten USA maintains a drug-free workplace. All candidates selected for employment will be required to successfully complete a pre-employment drug screening as a condition of hire.