Head of Firmware
ABOUT BASE
Base is America’s next-generation power company. We’re rebuilding the foundation of modern civilization–electricity–by deploying a vast network of distributed batteries that is transforming today’s fragile, centralized grid into a resilient and abundant system. We are engineers, operators, and creatives solving some of the most complex, interdisciplinary challenges of our time.
ABOUT THE ROLE
We're hiring a Head of Firmware to own every line of code that runs on a Base battery. You'll design and build firmware systems and set the direction for the team that delivers it.
You'll design the platform, hire the team, and ship the firmware. If you'd rather review RFCs than write them, this isn't the role. If you'd rather only write code, this also isn't the role. This is for someone who wants to do both, and build an organization while they do it.
You'll report to the Head of Software and work most closely with the hardware, power electronics, and energy-markets teams.
What You'll Do
Set the technical direction
- Own firmware architecture end to end — from the MCU on the BMS, up through edge gateways, and into the telemetry pipeline in the cloud.
- Choose the platform: processor and SoC selection, RTOS vs. embedded Linux, toolchains, CI, HIL, OTA, observability, and security.
- Write the high-leverage code. Review the hard PRs. Own the technical bar.
- Keep firmware compliant with UL 1973, 1741, 9540, and 9540A — without slowing the fleet down.
Own the systems that run the fleet
- Real-time grid-balancing firmware and safe participation in ancillary services.
- Sub-second telemetry from battery to cloud, in partnership with the software org.
- Automated fault detection, isolation, and recovery across the fleet — because every truck roll is a loss.
- Bidirectional comms: Modbus, MQTT, cellular backhaul, and a commissioning flow a field tech can run in under 10 minutes.
- OTA update and rollback for a fleet that can never go dark...