Embedded Software Engineer

Location: London (Paddington until April, then Tottenham court Road) + travel to partner locations in Oxford and Cambridge areas (Hybrid home /1 day per week in-office).

Reports to: Chief Technology Officer (CTO)

Start Date: March 2026

Employment Type: Contractual 6 months (20 hours with a possibility to go to FTE )

About Marley Health

Marley Health is redefining proactive pet care through clinically validated biomarkers, wearable technology, and data-powered diagnostics. Spun out of the University of Oxford and the Royal Veterinary College, we’re building a connected ecosystem for pet health that empowers veterinarians, insurers, and pet parents alike.

Why Join Us

• Build a product that sets a new clinical standard in pet health.
• Work alongside a mission driven, no-ego team focused on execution and excellence.
• Make meaningful contributions every day – your work will directly shape our core product.
• Join a fast-moving company backed by top-tier investors and world class scientific expertise.
• Competitive salary + office space in London + 25 days holiday + company laptop & supporting tech + hybrid.

About this role

We are looking for an experienced Embedded Software Engineer to join our expanding team and contribute to the development of our sector leading wearable technology.

Working closely with our hardware development partners, you will design, implement, and maintain the embedded software that controls our devices, which combine a range of biomarker sensors, wireless connectivity and signal processing algorithms.

You will write efficient, modular and well-documented code and implement software updates and patches based on feedback and testing results. You will also debug and troubleshoot software to identify and resolve issues.

You will liaise with our partner teams at Oxford University and the Royal Veterinary College, as part of a network of data and engineering specialists to develop our products and ensure high-quality, correctly structured data reaches the cloud for processing and machine learning.

This is a technical, delivery focused role in a new, growing business. You will be a doer, comfortable with working in a highly collaborative environment that is changing rapidly and continues to be driven by university-led research to shape its final offering. You should expect to contribute beyond the day-to-day mechanics of software engineering, lending your technical and best-practice expertise and insight as needed to support Marley in achieving its goals.

Technical competencies

• Proficiency in programming languages such as C/C++ against a range of processor architectures, their SDKs and IDEs.
• Strong understanding of embedded systems, hardware-software integration and real-time operating systems (RTOS).
• Familiarity of working with on-device development to support time-aligned data capture from multiple sensors; data transfer (BLE, WiFi, etc.); data pre-processing (e.g. Fast Fourier Transform) and filtering.
• Experience of the impact of hardware (MCU) choice on device capability; able to contribute actively to evaluations of MCU option and, in particular, the balance between on-device and in-the-cloud processing capabilities.
• Familiar with the use of firmware to store and manage device configuration details.
• Track record in code optimisation, in particular to maximise battery life and operating in low power mode.
• Knowledge of communication protocols (e.g. MQTT) and device drivers.
• Familiarity with software version control (e.g. Git).
• Experience with sending GPS location over LTE connection

Technical nice-to-haves

• Some exposure to Python (as applied to data manipulation).
• An understanding of cloud technologies and techniques for ingesting and pipelining data.
• Familiarity with machine learning and artificial intelligence concepts.

What you’ll bring

• A self-starter who is self-motivated, proactive, and thrives in an early-stage environment.
• Not afraid to roll up your sleeves – you enjoy working directly with the technology and solving real-world problems for real users.
• Able to work and communicate effectively across technical and non-technical disciplines, tuning tone and content as necessary.
• As a key member of the engineering interface between Marley and some of its key suppliers, a contributor to ensuring the relationship remains effective and aligned to Marley’s goals.
• Ability to think strategically while straightening out the details.
• Confident to state your view and share your insights but fully commits to a decision once taken.
• Motivated by impact and excited to help build a truly novel product from the ground up.