Senior Embedded Software Engineer, Parallel
$150-200k
Powering autonomous rail
Job no longer available
Powering autonomous rail
21-100 employees
Job no longer available
$150-200k
21-100 employees
Company mission
To provide a safer, more efficient, and sustainable alternative to short-haul trucking, seamlessly integrating with existing rail operations and powering the future of freight.
Role
Who you are
- 5+ years of professional experience in embedded software development
- Strong proficiency in systems programming languages like C/C++ or Rust
- Demonstrated experience with digital communication protocols (SPI, I2C, UART, CAN, etc.) and peripheral device integration on bare metal and RTOS platforms
- Expertise in designing and implementing state machines and command/control architectures
- Hands-on experience with hardware platforms in domains such as autonomous vehicles, aerospace, robotics, or industrial automation
- Strong commitment to test-driven development with experience building aggressive unit and integration test strategies
- Solid understanding of real-time constraints, interrupt handling, and resource management in embedded systems
Desirable
- Production experience with Rust in embedded environments or strong desire to adopt Rust for systems programming
- Experience with control systems, PID controllers, or motion control algorithms
- Electrical engineering skills or formal EE education to facilitate hardware debugging and cross-functional collaboration
What the job involves
- Parallel Systems is seeking a Senior Embedded Software Engineer to design, develop, and optimize embedded systems that power our autonomous rail vehicles. In this role, you will create robust, real-time software that interfaces directly with hardware components, sensors, and control systems to enable safe and reliable autonomous rail operations
- This position requires deep expertise in embedded systems programming, hardware-software integration, and real-time system design, as well as the ability to work closely with hardware engineers and cross-functional teams to deliver production-ready embedded solutions
- Design and develop embedded software for bare-metal and RTOS-based systems, ensuring real-time performance and reliability
- Implement digital communication protocols and interfaces with peripheral devices, sensors, and actuators
- Architect state machines and command/control systems for autonomous vehicle operations
- Write high-performance, memory-efficient code primarily in Rust for resource-constrained environments
- Collaborate with hardware engineers to debug, validate, and optimize hardware-software interfaces
- Develop comprehensive unit and integration test frameworks for embedded systems using hardware test stands
- Drive best practices for embedded software development, including code reviews, testing strategies, and documentation
- After 30 Days: You have gained familiarity with our embedded architecture and hardware platforms. You're actively contributing to code reviews and have identified opportunities to improve our testing infrastructure
- After 60 Days: You've implemented and tested a significant embedded system feature or subsystem, demonstrating proficiency with our development workflow and hardware debugging processes
- After 90 Days: You've delivered production-ready embedded software that has been validated on target hardware in the field, established new testing patterns that improve system reliability, and are driving technical decisions for upcoming embedded system designs
Our take
The huge freight networks of the U.S. currently face the significant challenge of optimizing their supply chain logistics whilst meeting regulations for the mitigation of global warming. Whilst electric trucking startups provide a small-scale solution, the $700B industry is enormous, and replacing trucks would be unaffordable to most companies.
Parallel designs autonomous, zero-emissions freight transportation systems for railways, providing a sustainable alternative to freight trucking. The automated rail vehicles use existing railway networks to increase infrastructure utilization and open railroads to new markets, whilst providing an alternative to logistics companies that is safer, faster, zero-emission, and lower cost.
While the company faces competition in fellow autonomous railcar company Intramotev, Parallel shows promise to disrupt the market by being based on pre-existing infrastructure that is faster, safer, and cheaper than road-based logistics. Through this approach, the company can help logistics companies become carbon-neutral whilst increasing their access to railway freight, thus saving them money and boosting opportunities for revenue growth.
Steph
Company Specialist at Welcome to the Jungle
Insights
66% employee growth in 12 months
Company
Funding (last 2 of 3 rounds)
Apr 2025
$38m
SERIES B
Jan 2022
$49.6m
SERIES A
Total funding: $91.2m
Company HQ
Arts District, Los Angeles, CA
Leadership
Matt Soule
(Founder & CEO)Prior to Founding Parallel in 2020, Matt spent 13 years at SpaceX, joining in 2006 as an Avionics Engineer. They then held various roles at the company before becoming a Principal Avionics Engineer. Before this, they were an Electrical/Controls Engineer at Northrop Grumman and an Electrical Engineer at Lockheed Martin.
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