$112k - $179k
opportunity to contribute to one of the world’s most vital transportation infrastructures while collaborating with leaders in aviation, engineering, data science, and systems integration.At Peraton, you won’t just suppor…
Engineering & IT · Washington, DC
Embedded Engineer jobs in Washington, DC
Embedded engineers write the software that runs inside devices — from consumer gadgets to cars and medical equipment — working close to the hardware in C and C++ under tight resource limits.
1,283
Open roles today
$42–$105/hr
Typical pay range
$146k
Median, full-time
5
Fresh in this list
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01
Open embedded engineer roles
7 shown of 1,283 · sorted by freshness
$191k - $253k
products to operate reliably at scale. This is a founding team working from an unusually blank sheet of paper.ABOUT THE JOBAs a Software Engineer in Lattice for Cyber, you will build the core capabilities, experiences, a…
$69.4k - $158k
Undersea Systems Security EngineerThe Opportunity: Join our team as a Systems Security Engineer supporting cybersecurity and systems security analysis for U.S. Navy afloat and undersea platforms. You will help design, as…
$185.3k - $235.4k
’s leading Networking, Security, Collaboration, and Observability portfolios. Your Impact We are looking for an exceptional Sales Engineer to join our team of super heroes supporting the Public Sector and Federal segment…
$120.8k - $265.8k
, and release notes to support user adoption and knowledge transfer· Collaborate with Government stakeholders, Product Owners, AI engineers, data engineers, and UX specialists using Agile/Scrum methodologies to deliver i…
Responsibilities: B.S. degree in Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, or equivalent experience. Experience in interfacing the... ...ability to use sniffers and logic analyzers to verify working embedded software sup…
$129k - $205k
JOB DESCRIPTION Job Title Senior Embedded Software Engineer Job Description Sr. Embedded Software Engineer, (Bothell, WA) As an Embedded Software Engineer for high-volume consumer medical devices, you will play a pivotal…
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What embedded engineers earn in Washington
Hourly first — that's how the offer arrives
| Experience | Hourly | Annual, full-time |
|---|---|---|
| Entry level | $42–$59 | $88k–$122k |
| Mid level | $59–$81 | $122k–$169k |
| Senior | $78–$105 | $162k–$219k |
Adjusted for the Washington market from national ranges.
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What employers ask for
The skills these listings keep naming
C and C++Microcontrollers (ARM Cortex-M)RTOS (FreeRTOS, Zephyr)Hardware protocols (SPI, I2C, UART)Reading schematics and datasheetsDebugging with scopes and JTAGMemory and power constraintsRust or Python (a plus)Version control and CI for firmware
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Interview questions worth rehearsing
With the thing the interviewer is actually listening for
What does the volatile keyword do, and when do you need it?
Explain it prevents the compiler optimizing away reads/writes, with the classic cases: hardware registers and variables shared with ISRs. Precision matters here.
How do you debug a device that crashes intermittently in the field?
Talk about logging within constraints, watchdog data, reproducing environmental conditions, and instrumented builds. Field debugging method is a core competency.
Walk me through what happens from power-on to your main loop running.
Cover reset vector, startup code, memory initialization, and clock configuration. Comfort with the boot path signals genuine low-level experience.
How do you write an interrupt service routine safely?
Keep it short, defer work to the main loop or a task, protect shared data, and avoid blocking calls. Mention the race conditions you are preventing.
How do you handle a memory-constrained target — say 64KB of RAM?
Discuss static allocation, avoiding heap fragmentation, measuring stack usage, and linker-map analysis. Concrete numbers from a past project help.
How do you test firmware?
Unit tests off-target with mocked hardware, hardware-in-the-loop rigs, and on-target integration tests. Acknowledging what is hard to test is part of a good answer.
Tell me about a hardware/software interaction bug you solved.
The best stories involve a scope or logic analyzer and a datasheet detail everyone missed. Show the collaboration with hardware engineers.
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Resume tips that move the needle
For embedded engineers specifically — generic advice costs you here
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Name the microcontroller families, RTOSes, and protocols per project — embedded hiring screens on exact platform matches.
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Describe the products you shipped and their constraints (battery life achieved, memory footprint, certification requirements).
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Include debugging tooling experience — JTAG, oscilloscopes, logic analyzers — as it separates firmware engineers from application developers.
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Mention safety or regulatory work (MISRA, ISO 26262, FDA) if you have it; those doors are hard to open otherwise.
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Personal hardware projects with write-ups carry real weight in this field — link one if it is presentable.
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Where this role goes
Typical progression
01
Junior Embedded Engineer
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Embedded Engineer
03
Senior Embedded Engineer
04
Principal Firmware Engineer
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