Robotics Middleware Engineer (human)

Neura Robotics; Gemeindeverwaltungsverband Metzingen; On-site; EUR 60,000 - 80,000; Full time

Job summary

Atlas Metrics in Metzingen is looking for a Robotics Middleware Engineer to shape robotic solutions that redefine human-machine collaboration. You'll work with cutting-edge technologies and collaborate with interdisciplinary teams to drive innovations.

The ideal candidate has significant experience in middleware paradigms like ROS 2 and OROCOS RTT, focusing on real-time applications. The role offers a full-time position within a vibrant and innovative environment.

Qualifications

• 5+ years experience with ROS 2 or related middleware.
• Experience in real-time robot control systems.
• Familiarity with cross-middleware contract design.

Responsibilities

• Develop and implement solutions based on ROS 2 stack.
• Integrate OROCOS RTT into robotic control systems.
• Design and analyze DDS infrastructure.

Skills

C++ depth with real-time-safe patterns

Operational understanding of middleware QoS

Production experience integrating middleware

Tools

ROS 2

OROCOS RTT

Apex.OS

DDS

Job description

Robotics Middleware Engineer (human)

Neura Robotics • Metzingen

In the Software Department, you're shaping robotic solutions that redefine human-machine collaboration. You'll work with cutting-edge technology, setting industry-changing standards. Not only will you help develop our solutions, but you'll also set new trends and drive innovations forward. In an agile and interdisciplinary team, you'll engage in exciting projects. With clear Scrum processes like daily stand-ups, sprint planning, and reviews, you remain flexible and efficient. Collaborating closely with other departments allows you to create software solutions that are both technically advanced and practically effective. Here, you'll find an environment where creativity and technological excellence go hand in hand. If you're eager to turn ideas into reality and enjoy taking technology to the next level, the Software Development Team at NEURA offers the perfect challenge for you.

Full-time

from today

Your Mission & Challenges

• ROS 2 stack: driver nodes, ros2_control YAML composition, DDS QoS tuning, Nav2 configuration, launch system architecture, diagnostic framework. Jazzy as the production target; Humble fallback for legacy platforms.
• OROCOS RTT integration: port-based hard-RT component model -- used for Pinocchio + WBC solver composition pipelines where ROS 2 callback timing variance is unacceptable. Owns the OROCOS to robot abstraction adapter shim.
• Apex.OS / Apex.Middleware: deterministic ROS 2 variant relevant to SIL/PLd-certified deployment paths (Industrial Mobile Manipulator product). Owns the migration story from Jazzy to Apex.OS for safety-certified configurations.
• DDS infrastructure: FastDDS (current production), Cyclone DDS (Humble default), RTI Connext (some customer environments). Owns the implementation trade-off analysis and migration paths between them.
• DDS-RTPS protocol mechanics -- the wire protocol level where QoS settings actually behave (or fail to behave) as the documentation implies. QoS profile design, discovery tuning, fragmentation, reliability semantics.
• Zero-copy IPC: Iceoryx integration for sub-millisecond intra-host transport. Performance profiling of zero-copy paths under 1 kHz RT constraints.
• Eclipse Zenoh: emerging alternative for fleet-scale and edge scenarios where DDS discovery does not scale. Co-owned with the Robot Connectivity Engineer for fleet-side integration.
• Cross-middleware contract design: the robot abstraction layer exposes itself to ROS 2 consumers, OROCOS pipelines, and gRPC clients simultaneously via different backend variants. You own the schema coherence and behavioural equivalence across these surfaces.
• Observation pipeline middleware: synchronising sensor streams by sequence number, handling the middleware-side of the observation assembly for VLA-style inference inputs.

What we can look forward to

• C++ depth with real-time-safe patterns - lock-free queues, zero-copy semantics, allocation discipline, RT-safe logging.
• Operational understanding of how middleware QoS settings behave at the wire protocol level -- not just configuration syntax. Comfortable reasoning about reliability, durability, history depth, fragmentation, discovery, and the failure modes each produces under load.
• Production experience integrating middleware into a real-time robot control loop with deterministic timing requirements.
• Production hands-on in AT LEAST ONE of the four core middleware paradigms (treated as parallel valid entry paths): (a) ROS 2 with ros2_control hardware interface authoring and lifecycle node design (Jazzy or Humble); (b) OROCOS RTT -- component authoring, port-based composition, hard-RT deployment; (c) Apex.OS / Apex.Middleware -- deterministic deployment, especially in automotive or industrial SIL contexts; (d) direct DDS implementation work -- FastDDS, Cyclone DDS, or RTI Connext at the configuration-and-tuning level (not consumer-of-defaults), including QoS profile design for production deployments.

Nice to Have

• Hands-on across MORE THAN ONE of the four paradigms above -- multi-middleware experience is the role's distinguishing competence, not a baseline requirement.
• Eclipse Zenoh for fleet-scale distributed messaging or edge scenarios.
• Iceoryx or alternative zero-copy IPC integration.
• Multi-middleware bridging patterns: ros1_bridge, OROCOS-ROS2 component bridging, or custom abstraction layers.
• DDS Security plug-ins (authentication, access control, cryptographic transformation) for SIL-grade deployments.
• Open-source contributions to any of the major middleware ecosystems (ROS 2 core, OROCOS Toolchain, Apex.OS, eProsima FastDDS, Eclipse Cyclone DDS, RTI Connext community).