Senior FTL Firmware Engineer
Glocomms is partnered with an international specialized semiconductor manufacturing company to identify a Senior FTL Firmware Engineer for a growing team onsite in Rancho Cordova, California. This individual will be responsible for designing, developing, and optimizing Flash Translation Layer (FTL) firmware that powers next-generation SSD products. The role requires deep expertise in NAND flash storage systems, SSD controller firmware, and storage architecture, with a strong focus on performance, endurance, reliability, and data integrity. The successful candidate will work closely with hardware, ASIC, and cross-functional engineering teams to develop innovative storage solutions in a highly collaborative semiconductor environment.
Primary Responsibilities
- Design, develop, and maintain Flash Translation Layer (FTL) firmware for advanced SSD controller platforms.
- Architect and optimize NAND management algorithms, including garbage collection, wear leveling, bad block management, and write amplification reduction.
- Develop firmware features supporting data integrity, metadata handling, mapping table reconstruction, power-loss protection, and power-loss recovery.
- Implement data protection mechanisms including RAID encode/decode, error handling, and data consistency controls.
- Optimize I/O flow, channel scheduling, die scheduling, plane scheduling, and access scheduling to maximize SSD performance and parallelism.
- Drive improvements in latency, throughput, NAND endurance, and overall storage system efficiency.
- Analyze firmware logs, FTL traces, and system behavior to perform root cause analysis and resolve complex firmware issues.
- Execute and support validation efforts including stress testing, mixed-workload testing, power-fail testing, and corner-case verification.
- Collaborate with hardware, ASIC, validation, and product engineering teams to resolve technical challenges and improve product reliability.
- Create and maintain technical documentation covering firmware architecture, design decisions, testing methodologies, and debugging activities.
Key Qualifications
- Master's degree in Computer Engineering, Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, or a related technical field required.
- 8+ years of experience in firmware engineering with a focus on SSDs, NAND flash storage, or embedded storage systems.
- Deep expertise in Flash Translation Layer (FTL) architecture and SSD controller firmware development.
- Strong understanding of NAND flash behavior, endurance management, data reliability, and error mitigation techniques.
- Advanced programming experience in C and C++ within embedded or firmware development environments.
- Experience developing storage firmware features related to garbage collection, wear leveling, metadata management, and block lifecycle management.
- Hands-on experience with firmware debugging tools, including JTAG, ICE debuggers, firmware trace analysis, and performance profiling tools.
- Strong knowledge of firmware validation, reliability engineering, and system robustness testing methodologies.
- Experience with Git and modern version control practices.
- Excellent written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to work independently and effectively in a cross-functional engineering environment. Mandarin language skills are preferred.
This position is fully onsite in Rancho Cordova, CA and requires regular collaboration with firmware, hardware, ASIC, and validation teams. Candidates should be comfortable working on-site in a fast-paced semiconductor engineering environment where hands-on development and close partnership with product teams are essential to success.
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