Senior Member of Technical Staff: Hardware Integration, Sensing, and Control

Position Summary

You will own the software-level interface between hardware and the rest of the robot—integrating sensors, actuators, and compute into a coherent, reliable platform that the higher-level stack can depend on. You'll bring up new hardware, build the drivers and data pipelines that expose it cleanly to the system, and implement the low-level control and sensing software that makes our robots move and perceive.

This role is less about firmware on bare metal and more about the systems-software layer that turns a pile of components into a robot: reliable interfaces, clean abstractions, solid real-time behavior, and the tooling to keep it all working in the field.

You will own the software-level interface between hardware and the rest of the robot—integrating sensors, actuators, and compute into a coherent, reliable platform that the higher-level stack can depend on. You'll bring up new hardware, build the drivers and data pipelines that expose it cleanly to the system, and implement the low-level control and sensing software that makes our robots move and perceive.

This role is less about firmware on bare metal and more about the systems-software layer that turns a pile of components into a robot: reliable interfaces, clean abstractions, solid real-time behavior, and the tooling to keep it all working in the field.

• Hardware Integration & Bring-Up:
  Lead the software-side integration of new sensors, actuators, and compute hardware—from driver development and interface design through system-level commissioning.
• Low-Level Control:
  Design, implement, and tune real-time control loops for robot joints and actuators, with a focus on performance, safety, and determinism.
• Sensor Pipeline Development:
  Build and maintain reliable, low-latency data pipelines for cameras (GMSL), LiDARs, IMUs, force/torque sensors, and other peripherals.
• Real-Time Systems:
  Develop the low-level software that runs on our compute platforms, including NVIDIA Jetson targets, ensuring tight hardware/software co-optimization at the systems-software layer.
• EtherCAT & Fieldbus Communication:
  Implement and maintain EtherCAT-based communication stacks for real-time servo and I/O integration; debug and optimize fieldbus timing and topology.
• Cross-Functional Collaboration:
  
  Partner with AI and software infrastructure teams to define interfaces and ensure hardware capabilities are fully exposed to the broader robotics stack.
• Diagnostics & Reliability:
  Develop tools for hardware-in-the-loop testing, sensor calibration, system diagnostics, and field debugging of deployed robots.

• Hardware Integration Background:
  Proven experience integrating sensors and actuators into robotic or other complex electromechanical systems at the software level.
• Systems Software Expertise:
  Strong C/C++ skills, with experience writing drivers, HALs, or systems software on embedded Linux.
• Real-Time Control:
  Hands-on experience designing and tuning real-time control loops (torque, velocity, position) with an understanding of control theory fundamentals.
• EtherCAT
  
  Experience:
  
  Practical experience bringing up an EtherCAT master/slave stack for real-time motor control or I/O; familiarity with tools such as Acontis, TwinCAT, or equivalent.
• NVIDIA Jetson Platforms:
  Experience bringing up and optimizing software on Jetson AGX, Orin, or similar SoC platforms, including CUDA integration, device tree configuration, and peripheral bring-up.
• Camera & Sensor Integration:
  Experience with GMSL or similar camera interfaces; comfort working with V4L2, GStreamer, or camera SDK pipelines.
• System Debugging:
  Strong ability to debug across the hardware/software boundary using serial consoles, logic analyzers, and Linux debugging tools.
• Python & C++ Workflows:
  Fluency in both languages across the development stack.

• Experience with additional fieldbus or real-time communication protocols (CAN, CANopen, RS-485, SPI, I2C, etc.).
• Experience with CUDA, NVENC, or other GPU-accelerated sensor processing pipelines.
• Exposure to perception sensor calibration (camera intrinsics/extrinsics, IMU-camera alignment, LiDAR-camera…