Senior Embedded Systems Engineer in Santa Rosa

Job Description

We're partnering with a well-funded robotics startup building an integrated hardware and software platform for embodied AI. The team combines advanced robotic hardware with the software stack that runs it, with the goal of making robots far easier to build, program, and deploy. This is an early, high-ownership environment where your firmware is among the first code running on every new robot subsystem.

We're looking for a Senior Embedded Systems Engineer to own the firmware and embedded software stack on general-purpose robots. You'll work at the intersection of hardware and software, developing motor control firmware, sensor interfaces, and communication infrastructure. This is a high-ownership, hands-on role. You'll collaborate daily with mechanical, electrical, and controls engineers, and your firmware will be among the first code that runs on every new robot subsystem.

You'll help define how the team scales from lab prototype to deployed fleet.

• Architect and develop production-grade firmware for actuator controllers, sensor interfaces, and communication subsystems on the robots
• Own hardware bring-up: write low-level peripheral drivers, validate new PCBs, and debug hardware/firmware boundary issues
• Implement and optimize motor control algorithms (torque, velocity, and position loops) on bare-metal and RTOS platforms
• Develop and maintain real-time communication stacks including EtherCAT, CAN, SPI, I2C, and UART
• Build and maintain CI/CD pipelines and hardware-in-the-loop (HIL) test infrastructure to enable fast, reliable iteration
• Contribute to firmware safety architecture: fault detection, safe-state logic, and watchdog systems
• Read and interpret schematics and datasheets; participate in hardware design reviews to give firmware perspective early
• Establish firmware standards, coding practices, and review processes as the team scales

• 5+ years of embedded firmware development experience in robotics, automotive, or industrial/consumer electronics, with at least some of that in a production-deployed product
• Strong C and C++ skills for bare-metal and RTOS environments across multiple modern MCU families (e.g., ARM Cortex-M, TI C2000, Nordic nRF); breadth across vendors and architectures is valued over depth in any single platform
• Hands-on experience with motor control or actuator firmware (FOC, torque control, or similar)
• Proficiency with communication protocols:
  EtherCAT, CAN, SPI, I2C, UART, at the driver level, not just API usage
• Hardware bring-up experience: JTAG, oscilloscopes, logic analyzers, and debugging across the firmware/hardware boundary
• Ability to read schematics and PCB layouts; comfortable working directly with hardware engineers

• Experience scaling firmware from prototype to high-volume production (hundreds to thousands of units)
• Background in functional safety (ISO 26262, IEC 62443, or equivalent)
• Python scripting for test automation and HIL frameworks
• Familiarity with EtherCAT master/slave stack implementation (SOEM or equivalent)
• Experience with power electronics firmware: BMS, DC-DC converters, or charging systems
• Prior work in a vertically integrated robotics or hardware startup
• Hands-on use of AI coding agents (e.g., Claude Code, Codex, etc.) to accelerate firmware development: writing prompts, reviewing AI-generated code, and integrating agentic workflows into embedded development cycles