Embedded Systems Engineer - Robotics & ROS2

NXTGEN Industries Pty Ltd; Melbourne; Hybrid; AUD 90,000 - 130,000; Full time

Job summary

NXTGEN Industries in Melbourne, Victoria, is seeking an Embedded Systems Engineer to design and maintain firmware and hardware interfaces for robotic inspection platforms operating in demanding field conditions.

You will develop firmware for control boards, sensors, and communication modules, integrate with Linux, work with ROS 2, and participate in hardware bring-up and test. Some travel may be required.

Qualifications

• 3+ years of embedded firmware development for production hardware.
• Experience with real-time operating systems (FreeRTOS, Zephyr, or bare-metal).
• Experience with CAN, SPI, I2C, UART, RS-485 and Linux integration.

Responsibilities

• Design and implement firmware for control boards, sensors, and communication modules.
• Develop and maintain hardware abstraction layers for sensors and power systems.
• Implement and optimise communication protocols: CAN bus, SPI, I2C, UART, RS-485.
• Work with ROS 2 hardware interfaces to expose embedded subsystems to the autonomy stack.
• Design and validate power management systems for extended field operation.
• Contribute to PCB design reviews and hardware bring-up processes.
• Develop automated test fixtures and HIL (hardware-in-the-loop) test environments.
• Travel to deployment sites across Australia as required.

Skills

Embedded firmware

C/C++

RTOS

CAN bus

SPI/I2C/UART

Linux integration

Schematic reading

Tools

ROS 2

Linux

Job description

The Role

We are looking for an Embedded Systems Engineer to design and maintain the firmware and hardware interfaces that make our robotic inspection platforms operate reliably in demanding field conditions.

What You Will Do

• Design and implement firmware for robotic control boards, sensor interfaces, and communication modules
• Develop and maintain hardware abstraction layers for sensors, actuators, and power systems
• Implement and optimise communication protocols: CAN bus, RS-485, SPI, I2C, Ethernet
• Work with ROS 2 hardware interfaces to expose embedded subsystems to the autonomy stack
• Design and validate power management systems for extended field operation
• Contribute to PCB design reviews and hardware bring-up processes
• Develop automated test fixtures and HIL (hardware-in-the-loop) test environments

What We Are Looking For

• 3+ years of embedded firmware development in C/C++ for production hardware
• Experience with real-time operating systems (FreeRTOS, Zephyr, or bare-metal RTOS patterns)
• Strong understanding of communication protocols: CAN, SPI, I2C, UART, RS-485
• Experience integrating embedded systems with Linux-based compute platforms
• Ability to read and review schematics, contribute to hardware design discussions
• Experience in an industrial, robotics, or safety-critical embedded context is highly regarded

Where You’ll Work

Our head office is in Melbourne and we have a second office in Sydney. We are open to flexible and remote working arrangements anywhere in Australia for the right person, so where you are based should not stop you from applying.

This role does involve periodic travel to sites where our systems are deployed, across infrastructure, rail and construction projects around the country.