About the Role
Silentium Defence is continuing to scale its engineering capability to support growing demand across our advanced sensing platforms.
We are seeking a Technical Lead to take ownership of a key engineering team responsible for developing the Hardware Abstraction layer which involves a mix of FPGA, firmware, OS customization and embedded software
While a strong understanding of embedded systems is important, this position is not intended to be a technical specialist role. The focus is on leading people, offering technical guidance, building capability, improving processes, and enabling consistent delivery outcomes.
You will play a critical role in creating clarity, strengthening team performance, and ensuring engineers have the structure, support, and direction required to succeed.
Key Responsibilities
- Lead, coach, and develop a team of software engineers who will be working on FPGA, firmware, device drivers and embedded software
- Set clear priorities aligned to program and product objectives and ensure delivery against them
- Ensure realistic timelines, effective resource allocation, and delivery consistency
- Translate business priorities into clear, actionable direction for the team
- Communicate progress, risks, and dependencies effectively to stakeholders
- Identify and remove blockers and proactively manage delivery challenges
- Strengthen team capability through mentoring, performance management, and structured development
- Foster a high-performing, collaborative, and accountable team environment
- Drive continuous improvement across team performance and delivery outcomes
- Work with the Software Development Manager to define, implement and improve Software Development guidelines, processes, best practices and ways of working
- Lead the translation of product requirements into design artefacts, implementation plans and verification strategies
- Actively contribute to the definition and review of designs and code for FPGAs, firmware, OS drivers and embedded software
- Look for ways to innovate and optimize technical strategies by reviewing and benchmarking the software development environment
- Continually review the technical stack used by developers to identify issues related to security, support, obsolescence, compatibility and proactively recommend technical solutions
What We’re Looking For
Must-Have
- Proven experience leading small to mid-sized engineering or technical teams
- Strong people leadership with the ability to build trust and improve performance
- Experience improving delivery outcomes, team capability, or engineering processes
- Clear communicator able to simplify complexity and align stakeholders
- Ability to manage competing priorities in a delivery-focused environment
- Strong ability to define and review architecture and designs across hardware, firmware, OS kernel customization and embedded software
- Strong working knowledge of firmware development, embedded software development using C and C++ and OS kernel customization
- Strong root cause analysis and structured debugging capability
- Working knowledge of git-based version control, CI/CD pipelines, Issue tracking systems and Software Release management
- Exposure to Agile Development environments using Scrum and Kanban
- Australian Citizenship
Desirable
- Experience in defence, aerospace, or regulated environments
- Exposure to FPGA environments and Embedded Linux
- Understanding of micro-controller and processor-based systems, bare-metal and RTOS-based designs, task scheduling, interrupt handling, bootloaders, and firmware upgrade mechanisms
- Working knowledge of MCUs/MPUs/SoCs, clocks, reset circuits, memory devices and peripheral integration
- Knowledge of common digital interfaces and protocols such as GPIO, UART, I2C, USB, Ethernet, TCP/IP, MQTT, HTTP/REST Experience with bench bring-up, hardware/software integration, fault isolation, regression testing
- Familiarity with tools such as oscilloscopes, logic analysers, JTAG debuggers
- Awareness and understanding of watchdogs, fault recovery, telemetry, secure boot, credential/certificate handling etc.
- Experience working within structured development frameworks (Agile, SDLC)
- Experience scaling teams or improving capability in growing organisations
Qualifications & Requirements
- Ability to obtain and maintain a Defence Security Clearance (NV1 or
higher)
- Relevant degree in Engineering, Computer Science, or a related
discipline (or equivalent experience)
- Working knowledge of embedded systems, firmware, or digital engineering
environments
- Ability to understand technical challenges and provide guidance without
acting as the technical specialist.
Application Eligibility
Due to the nature of our work within the Defence industry, applicants
must be Australian Citizens and eligible to obtain and maintain defence
security clearance. Only applicants who meet these mandatory requirements will
be considered.
How to Apply
We understand you may not have all the skills and experience required for this role. However, if you have worked in similar projects send us your CV.
Click “Apply Now” to submit your CV and cover letter outlining your suitability for this opportunity.
Applications close 5:00pm, 7th July 2026.
Please note applications submitted via email will not be accepted.
Job Ref: REQ0014
Recruitment Agency Disclaimer: Silentium Defence does not accept
unsolicited resumes or candidate referrals and will not be responsible for any
fees associated with unsolicited submissions.
