Transatlantic Technology Research, home

Research & analysis for U.S. companies in European markets

NewsletterSaved

Choosing an Embedded Engineering Partner: Scopes, Questions and Red Flags

Deciding whether to bring in outside embedded engineering help, and how to scope and evaluate the firms you talk to.

By the editorial teamLast updated Written with the help of AI tools

Most product companies bring in outside embedded software development services at some point: a board bring-up, a security retrofit across a product line, or long-term maintenance of an embedded Linux platform. This hub helps engineering leaders decide whether to use a partner, scope the work so it can be quoted and tested, and evaluate the firms that bid. It’s a framework, not a directory, and we don’t rank firms.

Who this is for

  • Engineering leaders at US product companies who need to add capacity or specialist skills: secure boot, OTA, SBOM, Yocto, or certification evidence.
  • Firmware leads asked to write a statement of work or join a vendor evaluation.

Decision map

Your situation Start with
"Do we build this ourselves, buy a platform, or hire a partner?" Build vs. buy vs. partner
"We need a firm to write or maintain firmware." Firmware development companies: how to evaluate a partner
"We need a defined project: BSP bring-up, Yocto maintenance, test rigs." Embedded systems consulting: scopes, questions and red flags
"We need to add signed updates and secure boot to products already in the field." How to scope a multi-product firmware security retrofit
"We need a security review or penetration test." IoT security consulting

What to settle before you talk to anyone

  • The outcome and the evidence. What will be true when the work is done, and how you’ll test it.
  • Who maintains it afterwards. Under the Cyber Resilience Act, the manufacturer must handle vulnerabilities for the product’s support period [1]. Plan who maintains partner-written code for that long.
  • Due diligence on what they bring in. The CRA requires manufacturers to exercise due diligence when integrating third-party components [1]. Ask how a partner’s libraries and tools will be documented, for example in your SBOM.
  • IP, key custody and export control questions. Raise them with counsel early. Sharing controlled technical data with foreign nationals can be a "deemed export" under US export rules [2]. We don’t give legal conclusions here.

What to ask any firm

General practice for evaluating embedded software development companies. Our guides go deeper.

  1. Which chips, RTOSes and Linux build systems have you shipped on, and can you show evidence we can check ourselves?
  2. How do you develop securely? Ask them to map their process to a published framework such as NIST’s Secure Software Development Framework [3] or IEC 62443-4-1 [4].
  3. How do you produce SBOMs and handle vulnerabilities in code you deliver?
  4. Who holds signing keys during and after the project?
  5. What does handover look like: documentation, reproducible builds, training?
  6. Who will actually do the work, and where are they?

Red flags

  • A quote before anyone has seen your hardware or requirements.
  • No answer on security process, SBOMs or vulnerability handling.
  • Insistence on owning your signing keys or build infrastructure.
  • IP terms that leave you unable to maintain the code yourselves.
  • Claims of certification you can’t verify with the certification body.

These are warning signs to probe, not proof of a problem.

Start here

  1. Read firmware development companies: how to evaluate a partner.
  2. Use the firmware partner scorecard to compare bids on the same criteria.
  3. For a defined project, write a scope using the examples in embedded systems consulting.

Guides in this section

Sources

All accessed 2026-11-10.

  1. Regulation (EU) 2024/2847 (Cyber Resilience Act), OJ L, 2024/2847, 20.11.2024. Cited: Art. 13(5), 13(8). EUR-Lex, ELI: http://data.europa.eu/eli/reg/2024/2847/oj
  2. US Department of Commerce, Bureau of Industry and Security, "Deemed exports". https://www.bis.gov/learn-support/deemed-exports
  3. NIST, SP 800-218, "Secure Software Development Framework (SSDF) Version 1.1", February 2022. https://csrc.nist.gov/pubs/sp/800/218/final
  4. IEC, "IEC 62443-4-1:2018 … Part 4-1: Secure product development lifecycle requirements", IEC Webstore. https://webstore.iec.ch/en/publication/33615

Spotted an error? Report it to our corrections log. Read our editorial methodology.