DMTS, Firmware Engineering

The Distinguished Member of Technical Staff (DMTS) provides technical leadership for SSD firmware architecture and storage technology strategy, defining long-term roadmaps, driving innovation, and guiding cross-functional teams. The role influences strategic decisions, mentors senior engineers, and enables delivery of high-performance, reliable storage solutions aligned with business objectives.

Main Responsibilities

• Define and steward long-term firmware architecture, engineering standards, and technical roadmaps across SSD products and storage platforms.

• Lead architectural development of embedded firmware solutions, ensuring scalability, performance, reliability, maintainability, and transferability across generations of products.

• Drive cross-functional alignment across hardware, silicon, system software, validation, and product teams to deliver integrated storage solutions.

• Resolve the most complex firmware challenges involving NAND management, data path performance, storage protocols, endurance, quality, and system scalability.

• Sponsor pathfinding initiatives, innovation programs, and patent generation efforts that strengthen the organization’s intellectual property portfolio and competitive position.

• Define quality, validation, and verification frameworks to ensure firmware quality is designed into the product lifecycle from architecture through release.

• Influence technology investment decisions, platform strategies, toolchain selections, and technical partnerships through evidence-based recommendations.

Other Responsibilities

• Mentor senior and principal engineers, develop future technical leaders, and elevate organizational engineering capability.

• Establish architecture governance practices, technical standards, design documentation requirements, and engineering best practices.

• Represent firmware architecture in executive reviews, cross-functional forums, industry engagements, and strategic technology discussions.

• Maintain expertise in embedded systems, storage technologies, industry standards, and emerging research relevant to firmware architecture.

AI Responsibilities

• Architect and champion AI-assisted engineering workflows, including code generation, static analysis, anomaly detection, design exploration, and test automation.

• Govern the responsible adoption of AI tools within firmware development, ensuring compliance with intellectual property, security, quality, and legal requirements.

• Identify and evaluate AI and machine learning applications that enhance SSD firmware performance, diagnostics, endurance management, and engineering productivity.

• Mentor engineering teams on AI literacy and sound technical judgment when applying AI-enabled capabilities to complex engineering challenges.

• Influence enterprise AI strategy by representing firmware engineering requirements in broader technology investment discussions.

Qualifications

• Master’s or Ph.D. in Computer Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Computer Science, or a related technical discipline.

• Over 12 years of progressive embedded firmware development experience with demonstrated architectural ownership and technical leadership in storage environments.

• Over 5 years of recent SSD firmware experience, including NAND flash management, data path design, and storage protocol stacks.

• Proven record of defining firmware architecture and long-term technical strategy at the product platform or organization level.

Technical Skills

• Expert-level mastery of C and/or RUST in the context of high-performance, resource-constrained embedded firmware environments.

• Deep, protocol-level expertise in PCIe/NVMe storage interfaces, including specification contribution or advanced implementation experience.

• Comprehensive knowledge of NAND flash technologies (SLC/MLC/TLC/QLC), including wear leveling, ECC architectures, read disturb, data retention, and endurance optimization.

• Demonstrated expertise in firmware performance modeling, profiling, benchmarking, and optimization at subsystem and system levels.

• Strong command of scripting and automation tools (Python or equivalent) for architectural validation, tooling development, and data-driven analysis.

• Broad digital fluency across the embedded systems stack: from silicon and hardware interfaces to OS, drivers, and application-layer interactions.

Soft Skills

• Enterprise-level technical leadership and influence across diverse stakeholder groups.

• Exceptional communication skills with the ability to translate complex technical topics into business-relevant insights.

• Strong mentoring, coaching, and capability-building skills for senior technical talent.

• Strategic thinking and consensus building across competing priorities in matrixed organizations.

Embody Micron’s Core Values

• People – Respect, develop, and empower others

• Innovation – Drive continuous improvement and breakthrough thinking

• Tenacity – Show grit and determination

• Collaboration – Build trust and foster teamwork

• Customer Focus – Deliver excellence and value

• Speed – Act with purpose and set the pace