Join the team
Status: Open for applications
- Location | Remote + London Office, United Kingdom
- Summary | Develop firmware and support full system design for our embedded devices and systems.
- Contract Type | Full-time, fixed term contract
- Remittance | £50k – £60k
- Start Date | As soon as possible
About this position
You’ll work across Arribada’s projects, developing solutions for global wildlife conservation and environmental monitoring. As a senior position, you will develop advanced firmware, work with our mechanical and electronic engineers to support systems design, and advise our other firmware engineers.
About our organisation
Arribada co-develops open, customisable, and impact-driven conservation technologies for the world’s leading environmental organizations. Our mission is to drive down costs and scale up access to the technologies, tools, and solutions we need to solve conservation challenges, together.
We are based in the United Kingdom, operating from our London and Portsmouth offices, and conduct fieldwork across the globe. Our development portfolio includes open source, low-cost satellite transmitters for sea turtles, timelapse cameras to monitor penguin populations in Antarctica, and bycatch monitoring technologies to support UK fisheries.
Our clients include the National Geographic Society (NGS), the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), the European Space Agency (ESA), and the Zoological Society of London (ZSL).
We also invest a percentage of our annual proceeds to fund and run our award-winning after-school conservation technology programme, Club Arribada, operating in Principe and Cape Verde with the help of our partners.
Your Role
Your role will be to develop, implement, and test firmware and support the full system design for two of Arribada’s key projects:
MARitime LEO Insight Network (MARLIN): developing a camera and voice-based system monitoring fishing by-catch on UK vessels, Operation Pangolin: developing thermal cameras for research on endangered African pangolins.
You may also support and assist the firmware development team on other Arribada projects, helping drive development forward, improve processes, and propose new solutions.
- Design and develop firmware for MARLIN and Operation Pangolin projects.
- Write comprehensive firmware documentation, including technical specifications, architecture overviews, user manuals, and contribute to funder-required project reports.
- Collaborate with Arribada’s hardware and mechanical engineers on system design to ensure user requirements are met.
- Collaborate with external partners to understand needs, provide updates, and ensure alignment with project goals.
- Support and advise the other MARLIN and Operation Pangolin engineering embedded and software team members.
- Provide technical support to our field team during on-ground and on-vessel testing.
- Plan and coordinate engineering tasks and timelines with Arribada’s project manager(s) and broader project teams.
Who we’re looking for
The ideal candidate will be a proactive team player keen to take ownership of projects yet willing to work collaboratively with Arribada’s experienced and passionate team of field conservationists and engineers.
Our device cores must stand up to harsh conditions and be power-optimised to save every microamp through careful design. Therefore, we require someone with a rigorous approach to embedded software development who also understands hardware and system design. We need someone familiar with bug tracking and version control who can analyse, monitor, and enhance your code post-field testing together with our research partners.
If you’ve always wanted to help conserve wildlife and would like to experience working with some of the world’s leading conservation organisations to co-develop solutions and help to monitor and protect some of the world’s most threatened species, then this is your opportunity to use your coding experience to make a real difference.
Essential Experience/Skills
- Develop, maintain, and support code for embedded environments on single-board computers (nRF, STM, RasberryPi, Jetson Nano, and other platforms).
- Proficiency in C/C++ and familiarity with Python.
- Familiarity with Zephyr OS.
- Strong understanding of hardware design and system development, with a focus on collaborating with hardware engineers to ensure seamless integration of firmware and hardware.
- Set up and use integrated development environments for embedded systems (IDEs), along with makefiles (cmake), toolchains, and SDKs for building and optimizing firmware.
- Develop code for low-power applications including power profile monitoring and code optimization.
- Troubleshoot and debug code on embedded targets.
- Version control (Git), including tracking and fixing bugs.
- Knowledge of various communication protocols and interfaces for hardware development, such as I2C, SPI, QSPI, UART, and others.
- Experience with RF communication technologies, including LoRa, Bluetooth, NFC, and satellite communication systems.
- Hands-on experience with debugging tools such as oscilloscopes, logic analyzers, and JTAG debuggers.
Qualifications & Experience
- 5+ years experience in embedded software engineering or a similar role, including development and troubleshooting on embedded targets.
- 2:1 or 1st Class BSc, BEng, MSc, or MEng degree in Computer Science or Electronic Engineering.
- Experience working in a client-facing engineering environment.
- Ability to work autonomously in a full remote work environment, with strong self-management and time-management skills to maintain productivity and meet deadlines.
- Comfortable collaborating with distributed teams using communication tools such as video calls, instant messaging, and project management software.
- Experience supporting other engineers
Nice to have
- Experience managing projects
- Good time-management skills and ability to work on several projects simultaneously
- Experience developing conservation technologies
Position Details
This is a full-time position. The work location is hybrid with 4 remote days a week and 1 day at our office in London with the wider Arribada team. The office day can be flexible to accommodate your needs. You will report to the Arribada Project Manager and Directors. If necessary, we will consider a fully remote position based within UTC +/- 3 for highly experienced applicants.
Time: Full-time, 37.5 hrs/wk
Location: Remote-based with one day per week in the London office
Duration: 18-month Fixed Term Contract with an opportunity to extend.
Paid holidays: 26 days/yr (based on UK government holiday calculator) in addition to bank and public holidays
Benefits
- £50k – £60k per annum based on experience
- Hybrid working
- Paid travel to Arribada’s field conservation project sites
- Pension scheme (if UK-based)
How to Apply
If you’d like to express an interest in this position, please send a copy of your CV / Resume to applications@arribada.org
Alternatively, if you have any questions about this position, please do also get in touch using the same email address.
Our Projects
(Above) An assortment of Arribada’s hardware solutions | Developed for various organisations
(Above) An open source ARGOS satellite tag for EDGE avian species, such as the Shoebill Stork & the Philippine Eagle | Developed for the RSPB & the National Geographic Society (Photo Cameron Scott/Royal Ngala Safaris & Alain Pascua)
(Above) Our satellite tracked 500ml plastic water bottles can map and track the movement of ocean plastic polution across oceans. Live tracking
(Above) Rugged solar timelapse cameras to monitor Adelie penguin rookeries across the Antarctic Peninsular | Developed for Penguin Watch
(Above) Voice-assisted machine learning will enable Skippers working within UK fisheries to report bycatch events hands-free | Developed for Cefas
(Above) Our open source, low-cost, GPS and ARGOS satellite Horizon sea turtle tags enable researchers to scale up their monitoring programmes
(Above) Sea turtle GPS and satellite tags for rehabilitation centres will enable the tracking and long-term monitoring of injured or released turtles at very little cost | Developed with the Olive Ridley Project
(Above) Active suction technology provides an answer to attaching telemetry and behavioural tags to species such as oceanic manta rays in a non-invasive way | Developer for BOEM & Georgia Aquarium
Github
https://github.com/arribada
@arribada_i
hello@arribada.org
We’re all in this together
Arribada United Kingdom
To talk to our team in the UK / Europe (GMT), discuss volunteering with us, or for general conservation technology enquiries, feel free to mail us at hello@arribada.org or ask to join our Slack community channel.
Arribada USA
To talk to our team in the USA (EST), or for general conservation technology enquiries within the United States, feel free to mail us at hello-usa@arribada.org or ask to join our Slack community channel.