---
title: 'Firmware Intern at WindBorne Systems'
canonical: 'https://feeny.ai/job/firmware-intern-windborne-systems-redwood-city-xw4fnbztsggz'
type: 'job'
last_seen: '2026-09-14'
---

# Firmware Intern at WindBorne Systems

- **Company:** WindBorne Systems
- **Location:** Redwood City, CA
- **Employment:** full-time
- **Work type:** onsite
- **Posted:** 2026-07-06
- **Last confirmed live:** 2026-09-14
- **Apply:** https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/windborne-systems/75c5c65c-8179-4ca0-9659-39bf0f8f7b8b

## Job description

WindBorne Systems is supercharging weather models with a unique proprietary data source: a global constellation of next-generation smart weather balloons targeting the most critical atmospheric data. We design, manufacture, and operate our own balloons, using the data they collect to generate otherwise unattainable weather intelligence.

Our mission is to eliminate weather uncertainty, and in the process help humanity adapt to climate change, be that predicting hurricanes or speeding the adoption of renewables. We are building a future in which the planet is instrumented by thousands of our microballoons, eliminating gaps in our understanding of the planet and giving people and businesses the information they need to make critical decisions. The founding team of Stanford engineers was named Forbes 2019 30 under 30 and is backed by top investors including Khosla Ventures.

WindBorne is looking for a Firmware Intern to build the code bases that runs on our balloon hardware. As a vertically integrated weather company, we design, calibrate, & integrate our own custom sensors & control mechanisms into our autonomous balloons. This poses some unique challenges: most components are outside their temperature spec, power is extremely limited and it is not easy to update code when the system is many miles in the air. We believe the most interesting work happens at the intersection of hardware and software, where clever code can compensate for physical limitations. In this role, you’ll design and run experiments to understand the behaviors of our system in weird conditions, then cosplay as a 1960s NASA engineer to glean insight from the limited data available. You’ll own firmware strategy, making quick, tactical decisions on whether to vomit some code for a janky test or design a robust solution that will accelerate future development. From maintaining our custom RTOS and hardware abstraction layer to developing the driver interfaces for our suite of atmospheric sensors, you'll be solving fascinating challenges alongside a team of brilliant, passionate engineers who are revolutionising our understanding of the atmosphere.

This role is open at any point, not just during the summer. Applications are considered on a rolling basis.

Responsibilities:

- Develop and maintain drivers & low level libraries for new chips, modules, & sensors
- Own our custom open source RTOS hardware abstraction layer, Amslah. It has many custom features made for our unique application (I’m excited to tell you about them!) but ​​but requires hardening and architecture refinements as we scale
- Push the limits of our custom sensor hardware & calibration infrastructure, ensuring our GSBs are power optimized & survive extreme cold beyond subcomponent specifications.
- Work closely with people doing R&D on novel hardware as we seek to improve the accuracy of our meteorological measurements.
- Design fault-tolerant systems that can recover gracefully from unexpected conditions
- Debug highly non-trivial issues

Skills and Qualifications:

- Experience programming, shipping, and maintaining hardware in a real-world setting.
- Must be excited by rapid iteration more than trying to perfectly plan ahead of time
- Fluent in C/C++ and Python. Though ideally you ever so slightly look down on software engineers who only write interpreted languages, but you wouldn’t admit this because you are too nice.
- Should have experience writing low-level drivers for a number of various chips.
- Should be comfortable reading PCB schematics. Ideally have done a bit of EE yourself :)
- Be able to form hypothesis and run experiments about the behaviour of the system
- Must be an effective communicator, able to cut through misunderstandings to the core of an issue and reason about tradeoffs in complex multidisciplinary spaces
- Excellent debugging skills in complex settings

Nice to have:

- Experience with FPGAs and HDL
- Knowledge of RF systems and wireless protocols
- Degree in Computer Science/Electrical Engineering or related field
- Stellar understanding of undergrad level physics

Salary

- $33/hr

Location 1600 Bridge Pwky, Redwood City, CA. In person required.

## About WindBorne Systems

## Company Overview
- **One-liner**: WindBorne Systems designs, builds, and operates the world’s largest constellation of autonomous, long‑duration weather balloons to capture unique in‑situ atmospheric data and deliver AI‑powered weather forecasts.
- **Entity Type**: Private (Series A – total funding $26M)
- **Headquarters**: Redwood City (Redwood Shores), California, United States
- **Founded**: 2019
- **Founders**: John Dean (CEO), Andrey Sushko (CPO), Kai Marshland (CTO)

## Core Business
- **Primary industry**: Aviation & Aerospace / Weather Intelligence
- **Target customers**: B2B, B2G – governments, utilities, airlines, renewable energy operators, and commercial enterprises with weather‑sensitive operations
- **Mission**: Build a planetary nervous system that covers 100% of the Earth, providing humanity with unprecedented environmental data and predictions to mitigate the impacts of weather uncertainty and climate change [windbornesystems.com/mission](https://windbornesystems.com/mission)

## Products & Services
- **Atlas Balloon Constellation**: A global fleet of long‑duration smart weather balloons that autonomously control altitude and provide ~50 vertical profiles per balloon, reaching remote oceans and polar regions [windbornesystems.com](https://www.windbornesystems.com/)
- **WeatherMesh**: A proprietary deep‑learning forecast model that fuses Atlas balloon data with other sources to produce forecasts that surpass the accuracy of both physics‑based and other AI models [windbornesystems.com](https://www.windbornesystems.com/)
- **Data‑as‑a‑Service (DaaS)**: Access to real‑time and historical atmospheric profiles from the balloon constellation, sold to governments and commercial partners
- **SaaS (API)**: AI‑based weather forecasts delivered via API, enabling customers to build actionable insights and automations

## Market Standing
- **Valuation / Market Cap**: Not publicly disclosed
- **Key Metric**: Total Funding – $26M across 6 rounds (including a $15M Series A, per news reports, and a $5M venture round led by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation in December 2024) [linkedin.com/company/windborne](https://www.linkedin.com/company/windborne)
- **Notable Investors / Partners**: Pear VC, Khosla Ventures (seed), Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (venture round); partnerships with U.S. and international governments, private‑sector companies, and philanthropic organizations [windbornesystems.com](https://www.windbornesystems.com/)
- **Growth Signals**: 72 employees (+75.5% YoY); 38 active job postings (+1167% YoY); operations in 8 countries (US, Canada, Poland, Singapore, South Korea, Nigeria, Sweden, Kenya); hundreds of balloons launched per month with global scaling underway [linkedin.com/company/windborne](https://www.linkedin.com/company/windborne)

## Competitive Advantages
- **Proprietary data moat**: In‑situ atmospheric data from regions (oceans, poles) where other sensors are scarce – a key input for improving forecast accuracy.
- **Vertically integrated hardware & software**: In‑house design, manufacturing, and AI model development, all based in the USA.
- **First‑mover scale**: Only company operating a long‑duration, controlled‑altitude balloon constellation at this scale (Atlas).
- **Proven model performance**: WeatherMesh consistently outperforms traditional physics‑based and other AI forecast models, validated by government and commercial partners [windbornesystems.com](https://www.windbornesystems.com/)

## Strategic Focus
- Scale the Atlas constellation to permanently close atmospheric data gaps pole‑to‑pole.
- Expand federal and commercial sales (DaaS and SaaS), especially to utilities and the U.S. government.
- Advance WeatherMesh accuracy and develop new use cases in aviation routing, renewable energy grid optimization, and disaster response [windbornesystems.com/mission](https://www.windbornesystems.com/mission)

## Why Work Here
- **Planetary impact**: Every line of code and hardware design directly improves weather prediction, saves lives, and advances climate science.
- **Engineering culture**: “The Loonie Way” – high agency, obsessive problem‑solving, building from scratch, and iterating relentlessly. The team includes alumni from Project Loon, Stanford, and top aerospace/tech companies [windbornesystems.com/careers](https://windbornesystems.com/careers).
- **Hard problems**: Autonomous systems in extreme environments, real‑time data pipelines, and cutting‑edge AI.
- **Work environment**: Based in Redwood Shores, CA; technology is invented, designed, and manufactured in the US. Roles are likely on‑site (many engineering and operations positions specify location). Offices are collaborative and mission‑focused.
- **Growth**: 38 open roles across engineering, operations, business development, and more – a fast‑scaling startup with multi‑year runway [windbornesystems.com/open-roles](https://windbornesystems.com/open-roles).

## Sources
1. [windbornesystems.com](https://www.windbornesystems.com/)
2. [windbornesystems.com/careers](https://windbornesystems.com/careers)
3. [windbornesystems.com/mission](https://windbornesystems.com/mission)
4. [linkedin.com/company/windborne](https://www.linkedin.com/company/windborne)
5. [windbornesystems.com/open-roles](https://windbornesystems.com/open-roles)

## Other roles at WindBorne Systems

- [Launch Operator-Alabama](https://feeny.ai/job/launch-operator-alabama-windborne-systems-alabama-4gje76g48nar) — Alabama
- [Regional Field Manager (Central/South America)](https://feeny.ai/job/regional-field-manager-central-south-america-windborne-systems-central-south-hq6wwyygfhp5) — Central/south, United States
- [Flight Control Operator](https://feeny.ai/job/flight-control-operator-windborne-systems-remote-s7b04n2h1nw3)
- [Senior Manufacturing Engineer](https://feeny.ai/job/senior-manufacturing-engineer-windborne-systems-redwood-city-5397fj657a1r) — Redwood City, CA
- [Launch Contractor - Uruguay](https://feeny.ai/job/launch-contractor-uruguay-windborne-systems-artigas-ppsys5pjm21j) — Artigas, Uruguay
- [Electrical Engineer Intern](https://feeny.ai/job/electrical-engineer-intern-windborne-systems-redwood-city-yxanrb2he2m7) — Redwood City, CA
- [Lead Software Engineer - Gov Platforms](https://feeny.ai/job/lead-software-engineer-gov-platforms-windborne-systems-redwood-city-kqax9vq276dy) — Redwood City, CA
- [Meteorological Scientist - Data Assimilation and NWP](https://feeny.ai/job/meteorological-scientist-data-assimilation-and-nwp-windborne-systems-redwood-a2hymqfcy4tc) — Redwood City, CA
- [GTM Lead](https://feeny.ai/job/gtm-lead-windborne-systems-redwood-city-2v2gtspff59v) — Redwood City, CA
- [Chief of Staff to the CEO](https://feeny.ai/job/chief-of-staff-to-the-ceo-windborne-systems-redwood-city-r8q66bc40411) — Redwood City, CA