Embedded Engineer

Okra’s context

At Okra Solar, we’re on a mission to bring Power to the People by unlocking opportunities through energy access for everyone in the world.

Over 650 million people still live without electricity. At a time where technology such as mobile devices, productive agritech and AI are becoming more accessible than ever, we believe that access to energy is the first step toward opportunity and growth.

That’s why we build our Mesh Grid technology that energizes off-grid households at a fraction of the cost of the other solutions. We build the hardware and software, that we sell to local energy companies who deploy our tech to deliver affordable, reliable electricity as a service last-mile communities.

In order to execute on the mission to 100% energy access for all - we are looking for a hands-on embedded firmware engineer who can own critical parts of our control and communication stack, and contribute to the development of our new line of products.
You’ll work closely with our Product and Hardware teams to bring reliable, scalable products to life. This is a colocated job in the Porto Office, with the flexibility to work remotely a couple days per week.

If you’re excited about using technology to create tangible impact and want to help shape the future of energy access, you could be the right person to join us.

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Responsibilities

• Develop, maintain, and improve embedded firmware in our power control device
• Support and our wireless communications stack, particularly Wi-SUN, including debugging and optimization
• Contribute to the evaluation and integration of a new technologies and MCU platforms for our new generation of devices
• Work closely with hardware, QA, and production teams to ensure seamless hardware/firmware integration
• Participate in code reviews, architecture discussions, and system-level design tradeoffs
• Help write, run, and maintain automated and manual tests to validate system behavior
• Contribute to documentation to support long-term maintainability and team knowledge sharing
• Support hands-on testing and rapid experimentation

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Required Experience

• Role is an engineer to senior engineer level (depending on applicant experience and skills)
• Experience in high-reliability industries, such as industrial, automotive valued, etc
• Academic background: computer engineering, electrical engineering, industrial engineering, physics, or similar
• Experience with firmware development and hands-on prototyping for power control and IoT
• Exposure or experience with communication protocols, e.g. Wi-SUN (preferred), LoRa, ZigBee, Bluetooth, will be highly valued

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Hard Skills

• Strong embedded programming experience in C/C++
• Strong embedded Linux skills will be highly valued, in particular:
  • Experience in embedded Linux system design, customization, and administration using Yocto, OpenWrt, Debian, Armbian
  • Understand ARM based embedded Linux systems
  • Knowledge of Linux kernel, uBoot, devicetree, systemd, D-Bus, etc.
• Solid experience with microcontrollers, ideally with the STM32 family, TI, or equivalent
• Experience in high level languages, scripting, automation, testing, etc. E.g. Python
• Experience with low-level communication protocols and peripheral interfaces, including UART, SPI, I2C, …
• Comfort working with hardware debugging and power tools (scopes, analyzers, soldering, etc)
• Understanding of power systems or energy-related embedded applications
• Ability to collaborate across disciplines (hardware, QA, product) and balance tradeoffs pragmatically

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Soft Skills

• Excellent communication skills and ability to work with a cross-cultural, cross-time zone team
• Collaborative mindset: Ability to work effectively with others, lifting teammates up, learning together, and sharing wins and failures
• Experimentation and adaptability: Comfortable running experiments and quick iterations, learning from results, and adapting quickly to changes
• Balanced drive: Passionate about your work while maintaining a healthy pace to avoid burnout and sustain excellence
• Transparency and openness: Open to sharing and receiving ideas and feedback candidly
• Integrity and respect: Ability to make ethical decisions even during challenges, acting with honesty and respect

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D&I Statement

At Okra we are dedicated to creating a diverse and inclusive environment where everyone feels valued, respected, supported and empowered. Our workplace is an interconnected network, where each individual contributes to the energy that drives innovation, fosters collaboration, and illuminates new possibilities. We are committed to recruiting, retaining, and developing a diverse team of talented professionals, and we welcome candidates of all backgrounds, experiences, and perspectives to join us in our mission. Diversity brings power to our teams so we can bring #PowerToThePeople.

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