Wi-Fi Firmware Director

Summary

Samsung Cambridge Solution Centre is an R&D centre responsible for Bluetooth and Wi-Fi IP development for System LSI for its mobile Connectivity products. This role is for the leader of the Wi-Fi Firmware development team which is responsible for firmware running within our integrated Wi-Fi solutions – primarily for our higher performance tiers.

Samsung Cambridge Solution Centre is an R&D centre responsible for Bluetooth and Wi-Fi IP development for System LSI for its mobile Connectivity products. These are used in wearable platforms and low-end, mid-range and flagship level mobile handsets. At SCSC we are involved all the way from standards development, through to research, architecture, hardware development, software development, test and finally customer engagement and product deployment. SCSC works as part of the global Connectivity Development team within System LSI that also includes sites in Korea, India, China, Denmark and the USA.   This role is for the leader of the Wi-Fi Firmware development team which is responsible for firmware running within our integrated Wi-Fi solutions – primarily for our higher performance tiers. This firmware implements the control and data plane of the 802.11/WFA stack, as well as proprietary BT co-existence algorithms. The team also includes standards architects and works closely with the hardware team on architecture definition, the radio team for controlling our RF transceivers, the host team on Android/Linux integration, the infrastructure team PMU/RTOS interfaces and SQA/SQE teams for software test and quality control.

Samsung’s System LSI, and SCSC, are one of the few teams in the industry that have successfully developed and sold Wi-Fi chipsets into the fiercely competitive mobile market. Together we have shipped hundreds of millions of units to every market in the world. We are actively engaged in leading future technology development for Wi-Fi 8 and beyond. This role, managing one of the key development teams, sits within the Leadership Team at SCSC and the selected candidate will be a key contributor to our future success.

Key Responsibilities

Technical leadership of the Wi-Fi firmware function, including:

• Setting the technical direction of the team and making key decisions on overall software architecture, resourcing amongst different development priorities, pro-active/speculative research in advance of concrete requirements
• Working with global and local teams on setting the technical roadmap for Wi-Fi development, agreeing schedules and feature sets for our product and defining requirements from supporting functions and managing those interfaces
• Regularly reporting status across all active projects
• Managing tight and challenging deadlines for development, while ensuring our product’s excellence
• Staying abreast of developments in the field that will influence our product
• Defining process and ensuring efficient execution

Overall people management of the ~40 strong department of developers, including:

• Recruitment of high quality talent for growth or replacement
• Keeping a diverse and talented team highly motivated and engaged
• Performance management of the team including retaining strong performers and managing potential weak performers
• Direct line management of the department’s team leaders
• Co-ordination and negotiation with global teams on roles & responsibilities

Seeking to holistically improve SCSC:

• Participating in the SCSC Leadership team and contributing to policy decisions
• Helping to drive our organisational culture in ways that make it a positive and rewarding environment for our staff 
• Helping protect Samsung’s valuable IP including supporting its security policies while retaining an efficient development environment
• Building strong relationships with our customers based on trust

Skills Knowledge and Expertise

Required
 
Extensive management experience in an embedded software development role:

• Proven ability to recruit high quality talent, retain high performance and manage low performers
• Excellent ability to set a positive team environment and inspire team morale
• Great communication skills with both technical and non-technical peers

Technical skills in embedded/real time design:

• Coding in C either bare metal or with an RTOS
• Knowledge of arm embedded processors
• Knowledge of embedded debugging techniques like JTAG, or coredump or trace analysis
• Understanding of real time constraints and approaches to meeting them

Experience in wireless design, or very similar including:

• Experience designing to IEEE or other technical specifications
• Experience designing specifically for inter-operability including using defensive techniques and designing for test
• Experience designing in error prone environments where outcomes are not reliable or necessarily repeatable

Large project experience:

• Proven ability to deliver complex projects involving 10+ man years of development resource on schedule and to a high quality
• Experience making trade-offs on resourcing in complex technical fields
• Managing interactions with many peer teams including dependencies in both directions

Desired
 
Experience in Wi-Fi/802.11 specifically in any of:

• The control layers (including not just station operation, but TDLS, P2P, NAN, etc)
• The data layers - including the latest 802.11ax and 802.11be specifications
• BT co-existence on the 2.4 GHz band

Experience in other aspects of wireless communications including:

• Hardware (digital, analogue or PCB) or radio design experience in Wi-Fi
• Experience in communications theory or other relevant technical fields
• Experience with other radio technologies like BT, UWB, GNSS or Cellular
• Experience in antenna design or other product design disciplines

Experience working in a large multi-site organisation including:

• Experience negotiating roles and responsibilities with other peer teams
• Good understanding of cultural differences between different global teams across Europe, Asia and the USA
• Understanding of the challenges around compliance and security in large organisations

Benefits

Joining our team, you'll receive a great benefits package.

Benefits include

• Annual bonus
• Continued training and development
• Private medical insurance
• Travel insurance
• Life insurance
• Flexible benefits system
• 25 days holiday with the option to buy or sell days
• Great discounts on Samsung products
• Free on-site gym and canteen

We know that the diversity of our team is integral to our continued success. We encourage people to apply from all backgrounds. Please let us know if you need any reasonable adjustments to take part in this recruitment process and we'll do our best to arrange these if needed.

Apply online

Office address

One Cambridge Square
Milton Avenue
Cambridge
CB4 0AE