Senior Principal DSP Software Engineer
Confirmed on the employer's own hiring board on Oct 22, 2026. First seen by Alion on Oct 21, 2026.
Responsibilities
MaxLinear is seeking Senior Principal DSP Software Engineer to join our team. In this role, you will focus on the following:
- Architect and develop embedded DSP firmware including control-plane, management, diagnostics, telemetry for optical connectivity ASIC (PAM4 DSP) powering AI scale-up and scale-out architectures
- Drive the design, development, validation, and performance optimization of firmware
- Lead the implementation and optimization of digital signal processing algorithms for high-speed optical communication systems
- Define and drive software-hardware co-design strategies
- Drive pre-silicon software development, validation, and integration activities
- Lead post-silicon bring-up, performance characterization, debugging, and software optimization across hardware and software boundaries
- Ensure compliance with evolving industry standards and interoperability requirements, including CMIS, OIF, IEEE 802.3, and related optical networking specifications
- Collaborating with ASIC, Communications Systems, and Systems Engineering teams to deliver highly optimized end-to-end solutions
- Partners with customers, field engineering teams, and product management to solve challenging deployment issues
- Mentor engineers across the team and provide technical leadership through architecture reviews, design reviews, and code reviews
Qualifications
- Proven experience architecting and delivering multiple DSP centric embedded products from concept through production deployment
- Strong software-hardware co-design experience and ability to drive architecture decisions across firmware and ASIC boundaries
- Strong understanding of digital signal processing concepts and implementation techniques
- Deep expertise in embedded firmware development using C and embedded operating systems (RTOS)
- Strong understanding of data structures, algorithms, and software design principles
- Experience developing software for high-speed communication, networking, optical, or data center infrastructure products
- BS in Electrical Engineering, Computer Science, or related + 11 years of experience, or MS + 9 years of experience, or Ph.D. + 6 years of experience
Compensation and Benefits
MaxLinear has a Total Compensation philosophy which includes base salary and annual discretionary bonus eligibility and many positions also include stock-based compensation.
MaxLinear's good faith estimate starting base salary range is: $174,000 to $213,000 Annually
We offer competitive benefits designed to support employee health, welfare, and retirement and some highlights are: health care benefits, 401k savings plan, Employee Stock Purchase Plan (ESPP), and paid time off.
The actual starting base salary will be determined by the match to certain role-related criteria such as educational degree(s) or equivalent, relevant work experience, skillset needed for the role, and geographic location; this is not an all-inclusive list as some roles may require unique skills or experience.
Qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to, and will not be discriminated against based on race, sex, religion, national origin, sexual orientation, gender identity, disability, or protected veteran status.
Company Overview
MaxLinear is a global, NASDAQ-traded company (MXL) where the entrepreneurial spirit is alive and well. We are a fabless system-on-chip product company, striving to improve the world’s communication networks for everyone through our highly integrated radio-frequency (RF), analog, digital, and mixed-signal semiconductor solutions for access and connectivity, wired and wireless infrastructure, and industrial and multi-market applications.
We hire the best people in the industry and engage them in some of the most exciting opportunities that connect the world we live in today. Our growth has come from innovative, bold approaches to solving some of the world’s most challenging communication technology problems in the most efficient and effective manner.
MaxLinear began by developing the world’s first high-performance TV tuner chip using standard CMOS process technology. Others said we couldn’t achieve the extremely high-performance requirements using CMOS, but we proved them wrong and achieved enduring global market leadership with our designs. Since then, we’ve developed a full line of products that drive 4G and 5G infrastructure; enable data center, metro and long-haul optical interconnects; bring 10Gbit to the home; power the IoT revolution; and enable robust and reliable communication in harsh industrial environments. Over the years, we’ve expanded through organic growth and through several acquisitions that have perfectly complemented our existing portfolio and enabled us to deliver complete end-to-end solutions in our target markets. One such example was the acquisition of Intel’s Home Gateway Platform Division that added Wi-Fi, Ethernet, and Broadband Gateway Processor SoC technology to our connected home portfolio creating a complete and scalable platform of connectivity and access solutions to fully address our customers’ needs.
Our headquarters are in Carlsbad, near San Diego, California. We also have major design centers in Irvine and San Jose, California; Valencia, Spain; Bangalore, India; Munich, Germany; Israel; and Singapore.
We have approximately 1,200 employees, a substantial majority of whom have engineering degrees and include masters and Ph.D. graduates from many of the premiere universities around the world. Our employees thrive on innovation, outstanding execution, outside-the-box thinking, nimbleness, and collaboration. Together, we form a high-energy business team that is focused on building the best and most innovative products on the market.