Senior/Principal Software Engineer

At lowRISC we believe that open source development can transform the semiconductor industry. To help achieve this vision of production‑ready, commercial-grade chips and silicon building blocks, we employ a software team with a wide range of skills. Our software engineers work across the full software stack, from firmware and toolchains that interact directly with hardware to cloud‑based infrastructure that tests our products at scale. This includes work in areas such as:

• RISC‑V firmware and driver development.
• Software hardening and security tools.
• Embedded operating systems (in Rust and C).
• Compilers, code generators, and linters.
• Simulators and emulators (e.g. QEMU).
• Electronic design automation (EDA) tools.
• Performance and code size analysis.
• Cloud‑based infrastructure (such as continuous integration pipelines).

lowRISC is a non‑profit Community Interest Company. With a business model that includes member fees and engineering services, we have shown that it is possible to run world‑leading projects collaboratively for everyone’s benefit. Originally a spinout from Cambridge University’s Computer Lab, our UK team is based in Cambridge and our Switzerland team is based in Zurich.

Our Ibex CPU and OpenTitan Root of Trust projects have been taken to production silicon, partnering with world‑leading organisations including Google, combining open‑source approaches with best‑practice chip design methodologies.

Requirements

• Solid experience with C or Rust.
• Strong algorithmic and problem‑solving skills.
• A degree in Computer Science or equivalent experience.
• A high standard of written and spoken English.

Preferred or highly valued

• Experience leading a project or another major initiative, in which you had to communicate and negotiate requirements with multiple stakeholders.
• Strong knowledge of computer architecture; some experience with assembly languages (x86, RISC‑V).
• Familiarity with C++ and Python.
• Experience with build systems and reproducible tooling (e.g. Bazel, Nix, uv).
• Experience developing for embedded or resource‑constrained environments, including real‑time systems.
• Familiarity with CI/CD for embedded or systems software.
• A good understanding of compilers and linkers; experience with LLVM is a plus.
• Good knowledge of Linux.
• Experience contributing to open source projects.
• Higher degree levels and academic research experience are highly valued.

Benefits

Salary dependent upon experience.

Benefits include a generous employer pension contribution (up to 12.5% subject to an employee contribution via salary sacrifice of 6%), holiday allowance (33 days, pro rata, including public holidays), private medical insurance, group income protection, life insurance and a 4‑week paid sabbatical after 4 years of service.

The team is based in Cambridge, UK, amongst the Silicon Fen’s ecosystem of high tech start ups. Our office is in the heart of the city and a short walk from the train station.

We do not discriminate against any employee or candidate because of race, colour, sex, age, national origin, religion, sexual orientation, gender identity, disability, or any other protected characteristic. Please let us know if you need any adjustments made to the application or selection process. We will be happy to help.