Embedded Software Engineer - AI Focus

Illinois Tool Works · Appleton

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Job Description:

Embedded Software Engineer — AI-Enabled Development

IS THIS YOU?

We build the embedded software that runs digitally controlled welding equipment—and we're changing how that software gets built. We're looking for an experienced embedded software engineer who wants to do more than write great C/C++ code. You’ll help us figure out what modern, AI-enabled embedded development looks like when the software has to run in real time, on real hardware, in products people depend on.

This is an onsite position located in Appleton, WI. We will relocate the right candidate.

This is you if:

• You write embedded C/C++ where correctness matters, real-time behavior matters, and the code has to survive long after the original project ships.
• You believe AI is fundamentally changing how great software gets engineered—and you want to help shape that change rather than watch it happen.
• You have hands-on experience with AI coding assistants, agentic workflows, automated test generation, or similar tools, and you're curious about what comes next.
• You want to pioneer practical AI-assisted development on a real embedded product team, learn what actually works, and help turn those lessons into better practices for everyone.
• You're comfortable operating without a finished playbook. Some of what we're building doesn't exist yet, and that's part of the opportunity.
• You care about the long game: shipping something useful today while continuously moving the architecture, tooling, and codebase toward something better tomorrow.
• You enjoy making the engineers around you better—not just through what you build, but through what you teach, document, automate, and improve.

This probably isn't you if:

• You need every requirement and solution handed to you before you can get started.
• You avoid refactoring because "it works" is good enough.
• You see AI as someone else's job—or something you'd rather keep out of your development workflow.
• You prefer optimizing your own output over improving how the entire team builds software.

If the first list sounds like a great week at work, keep reading!

THE ROLE:

• Software is a core competency at ITW Welding. Our digitally controlled welding equipment combines embedded systems, control algorithms, electronics, and software to deliver increasingly sophisticated products.
• You'll join our five-person Software Technology Platforms team as an experienced embedded software engineer and help push that capability forward.
• Your primary job is still what you'd expect: design, build, test, debug, and improve reliable embedded software.
• But you'll have an additional mission: help us discover how AI can make embedded engineering better.
• That means experimenting with AI-assisted development, evaluating new tools and workflows, applying them to real engineering problems, and helping the team turn successful experiments into repeatable practices. You'll help us use AI to accelerate development, find problems earlier, improve test coverage, preserve engineering knowledge, and make our software easier to maintain.
• We're not looking for someone to blindly adopt whatever the newest AI tool happens to be. We're looking for an engineer who can ask a better question:
• "Where can AI genuinely make us better engineers—and how do we do it responsibly?"
• You won't be handed a finished playbook. You'll help write it.

WHAT YOU'LL DO:

• Pioneer, evaluate, and evolve AI-assisted development workflows for embedded software, including coding assistance, agentic workflows, test generation, documentation, and other emerging capabilities.
• Design, develop, test, troubleshoot, and document embedded software across multiple hardware platforms.
• Write efficient, reliable, maintainable C/C++ for hardware control, algorithms, communications, and real-time systems.
• Apply AI tools to real engineering problems while maintaining engineering judgment, code quality, security, and trustworthiness.
• Explore emerging AI and software-development technologies and translate the useful ones into practical improvements for the team.
• Identify opportunities to improve our development process, tooling, architecture, and engineering practices—and help turn good ideas into working solutions.
• Build and curate shared first-party and third-party software libraries that other teams and divisions can confidently reuse.
• Strengthen the codebase through thoughtful architecture, code reviews, strategic refactoring, and increased automated test coverage.
• Work closely with embedded, electrical, systems, product, and project engineers to define, design, build, and support new products.
• Diagnose difficult hardware/software problems using debugging tools, instrumentation, and disciplined engineering practices.
• Prioritize work, communicate clearly, and deliver against project commitments.

WHAT YOU BRING (required):

• Bachelor's degree in computer engineering, computer science, software engineering, electrical engineering, or a related field.
• Approximately 4–8 years of professional embedded software development experience.
• Strong embedded C/C++ development experience, including:
  • Object-oriented design in established C/C++ codebases
  • Embedded memory management
  • Microcontroller peripherals and communications interfaces
  • Real-time task management and interrupt service routines
• Hands-on experience using AI-assisted development tools in professional software engineering—for example, coding assistants, agentic workflows, automated test generation, or similar technologies.
• Solid understanding of modern software development practices, including version control, code reviews, automated testing, and collaborative development.
• Experience debugging embedded systems using tools such as oscilloscopes, logic analyzers, debuggers, and other hardware/software instrumentation.
• Strong analytical and problem-solving skills, particularly when diagnosing complex problems under real-world constraints.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills and the ability to work effectively across disciplines.

Even Better: You don't need all of these. They're signals that you'll be able to hit the ground running:

• Experience designing embedded software for high unit-test coverage through modular architecture, dependency inversion, hardware abstraction, and effective decoupling.
• Familiarity with CI/CD systems such as Azure DevOps.
• Experience working in Agile or Scrum environments.
• Understanding responsible AI practices, including access controls, protection of proprietary source code and data, and evaluating the reliability of AI-generated output.
• Experience with RTOS-based embedded systems.
• Experience implementing embedded control systems such as PID loops, motor control, digital filters, and state machines.
• Ability to read electronic schematics and understand board-level hardware.
• An interest in growing into technical or project leadership.
• A track record of improving engineering practices beyond the boundaries of your immediate project.

WHY THIS ROLE IS DIFFERENT:

This isn't an embedded software role with "AI" added to the job title. You'll be joining a team that is actively exploring what AI-native engineering can look like in embedded systems—where generated code still has to compile, tests still have to pass, timing still matters, hardware still behaves unpredictably, and the product still has to work. You'll get to work at the intersection of: Embedded systems × Software architecture × AI-assisted development × Real hardware. If that intersection sounds interesting, we'd like to meet you.

ITW Welding is an Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, disability, or protected Veteran status, age, or any other characteristic protected by law.

ITW is an equal opportunity employer. We value our colleagues’ unique perspectives, experiences and ideas and create workplaces where everyone can develop their careers and perform to their full potential. 

As an equal employment opportunity employer, ITW is committed to equal employment opportunity and fair treatment for employees, beginning with the hiring process and continuing through all aspects of the employment relationship. 

All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, religion, national origin, age, disability, protected Veteran status or any other characteristic protected by applicable federal, state, or local laws.  

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