Firmware Engineering Intern

Firmware engineers at Starkey help bring life-changing hearing technology to market by building the intelligent, embedded software at the heart of our products. This internship offers a hands-on opportunity to collaborate with cross-functional R&D teams, solve meaningful technical challenges, and contribute directly to innovative hearing aid and accessory solutions that improve lives.

Starkey is a world leader in the manufacturing and distribution of advanced hearing technologies. We are in the business of connecting people and changing lives. Our teams come to work each day focused on ensuring people everywhere have the products and services they need to hear better and live better.

Founded in 1967 by Bill Austin, Starkey is known for our cutting-edge hearing health innovations, industry-leading research and development, and not being afraid to push the edge of what's possible.

We are headquartered in Eden Prairie, Minnesota, have over 5,000 employees in 29 facilities across the globe, and do business in more than 100 markets worldwide.

Watch this video to see more of what sets Starkey apart: https://youtu.be/9cUYwTlCepg?si=wkovx8_R_iINfrc6

Firmware engineers apply their knowledge of embedded systems, digital signal processing, and wireless communications to create, test, and maintain firmware for hearing aid and accessory products. As a member of the firmware engineering department firmware engineers operate in the scope of New Product Development Projects and Advanced Development Projects. They engage regularly with other product development teams to deliver high quality and on-time hearing products to the market. The firmware engineer intern will be responsible for assisting firmware engineers in tasks related to the development of embedded firmware for hearing aid and accessory products. The engineer may participate in the design, implementation, integration and verification of firmware or related tools, scripts or software supporting firmware development. This position will also be responsible for assisting in documentation of design elements, interfaces, and tools where required.

Approach and Deployment (What to Do & How to Do It)

• Understand and participate in establishing requirements
• Have a solid understanding of system level requirements impacting firmware deliverables.
• Collaborate with others in the organization to define and improve system level requirements for the hearing aid firmware.
• Ensure that the firmware design is aligned with the requirements through reviewing the design with more senior firmware engineers.
• Document the compliance of the firmware design to the design inputs.
• Design and implement high quality firmware
• Create designs to meet the firmware requirements. At this level the engineer is expected to provide technical solutions to a moderate range of challenging problems. Solutions are reviewed by senior engineers for technical soundness.
• Document and review designs. Documentation shall provide value and enhance the understanding of the firmware.
• Use knowledge of programming languages (such as C or assembly) to implement firmware on resource constrained hardware.
• Diligently follow firmware development processes such as code reviews, creation of design documentation, coding conventions, etc.
• Create and continually update the status of assigned tasks using the established issue and project tracking software.
• Use established version control software to store the code.
• Root cause and resolve firmware issues in a timely manner. Communicating the root cause of firmware issues, possible solutions and the impact of the solution to firmware management and project team as needed.
• Verify the functionality of the firmware
• Support the Firmware Verification Team in devising test plans and executing tests to ensure high quality firmware at the system level.
• Review and provide constructive feedback on the test plans of the Firmware Verification Team.
• Create and perform unit tests to verify the functionality of firmware they have developed before handing off to Verification team
• Work with Firmware Verification Engineers and others from the R&D organization to understand and root cause issues.
• Effectively participate in project activities
• Understand and follow organizational processes such as the advanced development process and the product development process
• During assigned projects work with Firmware project sponsor/manager to create project plans and work estimates which are used to set project milestones
• Proactively take ownership of project assignments and follow project management process (Scrum) defined for the project
• Throughout projects, proactively communicate changes to level of effort estimates and the impact to the schedule
• Effectively communicate project activities during sprint reviews, stand-ups, and one on one meetings

Results - Performance Measures (How to Measure Success)

• Completion and success of assigned projects
• Feedback from other engineers and peers

Other Duties (Non-Measurable)

• Support Starkey Employee Corporate and/or Department Guidelines.
• Check and verify quality.
• Support corporate health and safety objectives.
• React to change productively and handle other essential duties as assigned.

Job Requirements

Education:

• Pursuing a bachelor's degree in an Engineering or related field

Experience:

• None required

Knowledge

Domain knowledge of one or more of the following is required,

• Digital Signal Processing
• Wireless and wired communication and related protocols.
• Embedded firmware development
• Firmware test methodologies and tools
• Knowledge of languages such as C or assembly required
• Knowledge of scripting languages such as MATLAB or Python required
• Knowledge of analog or digital circuitry
• Knowledge of architecture of programming devices such as DSPs or Micro-controllers.

Skills & Abilities

• Strong skills in programming embedded systems in C and/or assembly.
• Proficiency in troubleshooting.
• Attention to details.
• Great oral and written communication skills.
• Must be detail-oriented, accurate and organized.

Salary and Other Compensation:

The target pay rate for this position is $31.25 per hour.

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