Wi-Fi Firmware Director

at  SAMSUNG

Samsung Cambridge Solution Centre is an R&D centre responsible for Bluetooth and Wi-Fi IP development for System LSI for its mobile Connectivity products. These are used in wearable platforms and low-end, mid-range and flagship level mobile handsets. At SCSC we are involved all the way from standards development, through to research, architecture, hardware development, software development, test and finally customer engagement and product deployment. SCSC works as part of the global Connectivity Development team within System LSI that also includes sites in Korea, India, China, Denmark and the USA.
This role is for the leader of the Wi-Fi Firmware development team which is responsible for firmware running within our integrated Wi-Fi solutions – primarily for our higher performance tiers. This firmware implements the control and data plane of the 802.11/WFA stack, as well as proprietary BT co-existence algorithms. The team also includes standards architects and works closely with the hardware team on architecture definition, the radio team for controlling our RF transceivers, the host team on Android/Linux integration, the infrastructure team PMU/RTOS interfaces and SQA/SQE teams for software test and quality control.
Samsung’s System LSI, and SCSC, are one of the few teams in the industry that have successfully developed and sold Wi-Fi chipsets into the fiercely competitive mobile market. Together we have shipped hundreds of millions of units to every market in the world. We are actively engaged in leading future technology development for Wi-Fi 8 and beyond. This role, managing one of the key development teams, sits within the Leadership Team at SCSC and the selected candidate will be a key contributor to our future success.

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES

Technical leadership of the Wi-Fi firmware function, including:

• Setting the technical direction of the team and making key decisions on overall software architecture, resourcing amongst different development priorities, pro-active/speculative research in advance of concrete requirements
• Working with global and local teams on setting the technical roadmap for Wi-Fi development, agreeing schedules and feature sets for our product and defining requirements from supporting functions and managing those interfaces
• Regularly reporting status across all active projects
• Managing tight and challenging deadlines for development, while ensuring our product’s excellence
• Staying abreast of developments in the field that will influence our product
• Defining process and ensuring efficient execution

Overall people management of the ~40 strong department of developers, including:

• Recruitment of high quality talent for growth or replacement
• Keeping a diverse and talented team highly motivated and engaged
• Performance management of the team including retaining strong performers and managing potential weak performers
• Direct line management of the department’s team leaders
• Co-ordination and negotiation with global teams on roles & responsibilities

Seeking to holistically improve SCSC:

• Participating in the SCSC Leadership team and contributing to policy decisions
• Helping to drive our organisational culture in ways that make it a positive and rewarding environment for our staff
• Helping protect Samsung’s valuable IP including supporting its security policies while retaining an efficient development environment
• Building strong relationships with our customers based on trust

Extensive management experience in an embedded software development role:

• Proven ability to recruit high quality talent, retain high performance and manage low performers
• Excellent ability to set a positive team environment and inspire team morale
• Great communication skills with both technical and non-technical peer