Staff Firmware Engineer

As a Staff Firmware Engineer on the Safer Robotics Team, you will join a cross-functional group developing robotic technologies that will enable our robots to operate safely around people and in the environment utilizing sensors on dedicated computing platforms. In this role you will build high integrity safety critical firmware that will unlock the ability for human-robot collaboration.

Working on this firmware team, you will have the opportunity to take end-to-end ownership of new MCU based systems and design, which will become part of our future products. While the primary focus is firmware development on MCU’s, there are also opportunities to work at the MPU side as well, including kernel drivers, services, and other system-level software. If you are creative, thrive in a small team environment, and passionate about a world where humans and robots truly work together - come join us!

How you will make an impact:

• Design, develop, and validate safety critical firmware that helps ensure our robots can operate safely in the presence of people. This can span the various actuator control systems as well as the safety computing platforms.
• Drive board bring-up, integration, hardening, and commonization of new MCU based systems across multiple product lines.
• Work at the boundaries of hardware and firmware to unite the many components of a robot into a single functioning system that is performant and fault tolerant.
• Develop, maintain, and implement best practices to ensure high integrity, traceability, and compliance with safety standards.
• Help build the architecture and supporting infrastructure to allow for reliability and determinism at scale.
• Be part of a team bringing cutting edge technology to improve the safety of robotics working in real world applications.

We are looking for:

• 5+ years of experience in C/C++ at the MCU level as well as higher up in the stack in the larger embedded system.
• Passion for writing and delivering safety critical firmware, for example for autonomous vehicles, driver assist systems, motor control, robotics, or medical devices.
• Experience developing software for time sensitive control systems, including working with RTOS and various time sensitive network topologies.
• Experience working with embedded MCU’s (e.g. STM32, TI, or safety-certified MCU families) to implement safety functions that cross the boundaries of hardware and software.
• Hands on proficiency with low level communication protocols and peripherals such as Ethernet, SPI, I2C, UART, CAN, DMA, PWM, ADC, and Flash.
• Strong communication skills, including the ability to author technical documentation, RFC’s, and design/architecture reviews on technical topics.
• History of working in small, tight knit, fast-moving, interdisciplinary teams.

Nice To Have Skills

• Experience writing and delivering safety critical firmware, for example for autonomous vehicles, driver assist systems, robotics, or medical devices.
• Experience working within a standardized functional safety process (e.g. IEC 61508, IEC 62304, ISO 26262, EN 50128) or equivalent system safety standards (e.g. MIL-STD-882, DO-178C).
• Proficiency with hardware debugging and test equipment including logic analyzers, oscilloscopes, bench power supplies, and JTAG/SWD debuggers.
• Experience with system profiling and network analysis tools such as Wireshark, tcpdump, and Nmap.
• Experience with system bring-up, refactoring, and integration of components level firmware across multiple MCU platforms and products.
• Familiarity with MPU level development including Linux kernel drivers, device tree, and system services.

• The base pay range for this position is between $134,399 to $167,998 annually. Base pay will depend on multiple individualized factors including, but not limited to internal equity, job related knowledge, skills and experience. This range represents a good faith estimate of compensation at the time of posting. Boston Dynamics offers a generous Benefits package including medical, dental vision, 401(k), paid time off and a annual bonus structure. Additional details regarding these benefit plans will be provided if an employee receives an offer for employment.