# Staff Firmware Engineer, Platform Security at ALSO > Onsite · United States · Staff · Security · open. Source: https://alderhq.app/jobs/ashby%3ARidealso%3A7c7e60da-4561-4204-8ba0-c5d502e8936a (read 2026-11-14). ## Facts (observed) - Company: [ALSO](https://alderhq.app/companies/also) - Location text: Palo Alto - Where it can be done from (inferred): Onsite · United States (evidence: "Location: Palo Alto") - Posted: 2026-08-14 (92 days ago) - First seen by alder: 2026-11-02 · last verified: 2026-11-12 - Reposted: 0 times · edited: 0 times - Apply on the employer's site: https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/Ridealso/7c7e60da-4561-4204-8ba0-c5d502e8936a - Skills listed (inferred): C++ ## Pay and sponsorship - Posted pay: $200k–$240k per year (from the description) - Market band for similar posted roles (SF Bay Area, n 113): p25 $223k, median $250k, p75 $288k - H-1B filings at this company for similar roles, FY26: 12, median offered wage $230k ([US DOL OFLC LCA disclosure data](https://www.dol.gov/agencies/eta/foreign-labor/performance)) ## Description (the employer's text) About ALSO. We’re ALSO, an electric mobility company originally conceived as a part of Rivian. We’re a passionate team of builders, dreamers, doers and innovators, focused on creating entirely new (not to mention, innovative and delightful) vertically integrated, small EVs designed to meet the global mobility challenges of today and tomorrow. Our mission is to inspire everyone to ride ALSO—replacing many local car, truck and SUV miles with ones on vehicles that are more affordable, more enjoyable and 10-50x more efficient. At ALSO, we are looking for a Staff Firmware Security Architect to set the technical direction for our vehicle firmware security platform — secure boot, cryptographic key lifecycle, network integrity, and trusted OTA. You'd own the end-to-end security architecture that protects every ECU across our product portfolio, make the hard cross-cutting calls that product teams build on, and partner with cloud, manufacturing, and firmware teams to make security practical in CI, on the bench, and in production. You'd raise the bar for the entire organization through design leadership, mentorship, and hands-on delivery of the most critical trust paths in the vehicle. ### What You'll Do Secure boot & root of trust: define secure boot architecture across MCU families (ROM → bootloader → app) — image signing, verification, anti-rollback, and debug/JTAG lockdown for production — setting the standard other ECU teams adopt Key storage & management: own the on-device and fleet key strategy (HSM/OTP/secure element), key hierarchy design, and integration with signing and PKI services across development, manufacturing, and field Network & bus integrity: lead CAN/CAN-FD security design (authentication, integrity, encryption where required), and establish policies for protected diagnostics and secure UDS access platform-wide OTA security: own end-to-end trust for firmware updates — signed/encrypted payloads, on-device verification, rollback safety, and secure handoff between cloud signing infrastructure and vehicle update flows Platform security frameworks: architect reusable security libraries and APIs (crypto wrappers, secure storage, auth services) that product ECU teams adopt without reinventing trust Threat modeling & hardening: lead threat models across boot, update, and network attack surfaces, and partner with product and cloud teams on security reviews and production readiness Validation & cross-functional leadership: drive security test strategy (benchtop PoCs, negative tests, HIL scenarios), integrate critical checks into CI, mentor engineers on secure design, and align firmware, cloud, manufacturing, and systems stakeholders on requirements and trade-offs ### What You'll Bring 8+ years in embedded software/firmware development, with deep ownership of secure boot, crypto, or vehicle/IoT security architecture, and a proven track record setting technical direction across multiple ECUs or products, not just one component BS in an engineering discipline (Computer Science or Electrical Engineering preferred; MS or equivalent depth a plus) Hands-on expertise with cryptographic primitives and embedded crypto (AES, ECC/RSA, HMAC, certificates) on constrained MCUs, including key provisioning, OTP/fuse programming, and HSM or secure element usage in production Experience designing and shipping secure boot chains, bootloaders, signed firmware images, and OTA trust models in production Experience securing vehicle or industrial networks (CAN/CAN-FD, authenticated messaging, secure diagnostics) is a strong plus Expert-level C/C++ on bare-metal or RTOS (FreeRTOS, Zephyr, ThreadX, or similar), with deep comfort with linkers, memory maps, and debugging tools (JTAG/SWD) Ability to wire signing and verification into CI/release pipelines and drive platform-wide adoption Excellent communication skills — able to document security architecture, threat models, and runbooks, and mentor senior engineers; hardware-in-the-loop testing and emulation experience is a plus The salary for this position ranges from $200,000 - $240,000 per year, depending on experience, qualifications, and location. --- Data: alder (https://alderhq.app). Cite https://alderhq.app/jobs/ashby%3ARidealso%3A7c7e60da-4561-4204-8ba0-c5d502e8936a and the date you read it. Observed facts come from the employer's own listing; location reach, level, family and skills are inferences.