Principal Field Engineer - Enterprise SSD / Firmware
A senior individual contributor who owns complex enterprise SSD and firmware issues: investigating drive failures, reproducing defects, analyzing NVMe/PCIe logs and firmware traces, and verifying fixes with controller and firmware partners. Core stack includes SSD/NVMe technology, Python and Bash scripting, and C/C++ code reading.
- Compensation
- Not disclosed
- Location
- Austin, United States
- Work setup
- Not specified
- Seniority
- Principal
- Employment
- Not specified
- Experience
- 10+ years
- Category
- Embedded
- Posted
Skills
Must have
- 10–15 years of engineering experience with focus on enterprise SSD technology, firmware diagnostics, drive validation or storage failure analysis
- Strong understanding of SSD architecture: NAND, controllers, flash translation layer, wear leveling, endurance, error correction, power loss protection
- Practical expertise in NVMe and PCIe, investigating drive/host/server interactions (BIOS, drivers, OS)
- Advanced log analysis and troubleshooting skills, converting intermittent failures into reproducible cases and root cause conclusions
- Strong scripting skills in Python and Bash; experience building automated diagnostics, workload generators and reproduction tools
- Ability to interpret C or C++ firmware code and debug embedded behavior
- Sound technical judgment, clear written communication, confidence to challenge proposed fixes
- Degree in electrical engineering, computer engineering, computer science or related discipline, or equivalent practical experience
- Willingness to spend at least 30% of time onsite at client despite remote role
Nice to have
- Enterprise SSD OEM or controller supplier experience, including customer escalations and firmware qualification
- Practical use of Linux, nvme-cli, fio, firmware debug utilities, Git and PCIe protocol analyzers
- Windows and PowerShell experience
- Familiarity with NVMe management interfaces, secure firmware updates, self-encrypting drives, TCG Opal or storage certification requirements
Full description
About DigiStor
DigiStor develops secure data-at-rest storage solutions for enterprise, edge and sensitive computing environments. Our engineering teams bring together SSD technology, firmware and security to deliver storage that customers can depend on.
About the role
We are seeking an experienced enterprise SSD engineer to take technical ownership of complex drive and firmware issues. You will investigate failures, turn customer symptoms into repeatable tests and establish the evidence needed to verify a resolution. You will build a detailed understanding of DigiStor firmware behavior and work closely with controller and firmware partners to assess proposed changes and identify their impact.
This is a senior individual contributor role with influence across engineering, product management and customer technical teams. It suits an engineer who enjoys working directly with logs, code and hardware, and can explain difficult findings clearly. This role will be flexible, but you will need to spend at least 30% of the time onsite at client.Key responsibilities
- Lead root cause investigations into enterprise SSD failures, timeouts, resets, data integrity concerns and performance regressions. Isolate the contribution of drive firmware, host software, PCIe connectivity and system configuration.
- Analyze NVMe health and error logs, telemetry, firmware traces and crash dumps. Correlate events across the drive, operating system and server to establish the sequence leading to a failure.
- Develop scripts to automate log collection, parsing, event correlation and diagnostic reporting, with clear version tracking and repeatable execution.
- Create reliable reproduction scripts and targeted workloads. Document the hardware, firmware, configuration, command sequence and failure trigger so partners can reproduce the same behavior.
- Build a detailed understanding of firmware architecture and operation, including command handling, the flash translation layer, garbage collection, power management and error recovery.
- Review firmware changes, release notes and source code where available. Assess the proposed fix, design regression coverage and explain the risks before recommending adoption.
- Work directly with controller and firmware suppliers to resolve defects. Provide complete evidence, challenge unsupported conclusions and track issues through to verified closure.
- Evaluate performance, latency consistency, stability and data integrity under representative enterprise workloads. Use controlled comparisons to distinguish drive behavior from host or test limitations.
- Maintain reusable diagnostic tools and technical records, mentor engineers and communicate investigation status and release recommendations to customers and internal stakeholders.