(Senior) Electronics Engineer, Hardware & Firmware (f/m/d)

Tactiliarobotics; München; On-site; EUR 90,000 - 120,000; Full time

Job summary

TACTILIA Robotics is seeking an Electronics Engineer (Embedded Hardware & Firmware) to design and build the physical and low-level intelligence for our robotic hands. You will own the embedded hardware stack—from schematics and high-density PCB layouts to real-time C/C++ firmware running on ARM Cortex‑M microcontrollers.

You will balance space, thermal, signal integrity, and manufacturability while collaborating with the CTO and cross-functional teams.

Qualifications

• Degree in Electrical Engineering, Mechatronics, CS or related field.
• 5–10 years embedded hardware/firmware experience for mechatronic products, including series production.
• Proven schematic capture and multilayer PCB layout for space-constrained designs.
• Strong C/C++ on bare-metal or RTOS, with timing and hardware control expertise.
• Hands-on with BLDC/DC motor drivers and sensor interfacing.
• Fluent English; German is a plus.

Responsibilities

• Own the hardware architecture and high-density PCB layouts for multiple variants.
• Develop control hardware and real-time firmware for compact servo drives.
• Design sensor/readout electronics and calibration pipelines for low-latency telemetry.
• Ship bootloaders and drivers with secure update strategies across generations.
• Implement and maintain fieldbus interfaces (EtherCAT, CANopen, Ethernet).
• Lead lab bring-up and debugging across hardware, firmware, and mechanics.
• Incorporate CRA compliance and secure boot concepts early in design.
• Design for manufacturing and test (DFM/DFT) and drive production ramp-up.
• Collaborate with Mechanics, Software, and Systems Applications to deliver deployable electronics.

Skills

Embedded hardware

Firmware development

Schematic capture

PCB layout

C/C++ programming

RTOS

Power electronics

Education

Electrical Engineering

Mechatronics

Tools

Altium

KiCad

Bare-metal/RTOS

ARM Cortex-M

CANopen/EtherCAT

Job description

About TACTILIA

At TACTILIA, we are building the industry-ready robotic hand that closes one of the biggest gaps in Physical AI. Spun out of Schunk, the global market leader in gripping technology, we combine a decade of robotic-hand expertise and real industrial access with the speed and ambition of a deep-tech startup.

This isn't a research project waiting for its first customer. We already have a product, customers are ready to use it, and we are launching now. Your work will directly shape the electronics, actuators, and embedded systems that make that possible.

You will join at the moment when the hard engineering questions become real product decisions: how do we make a highly capable robotic hand reliable, manufacturable, serviceable, and simple enough to deploy on a real shop floor?

The Role

As an Electronics Engineer (Embedded Hardware & Firmware) at TACTILIA Robotics, you will help design and build the physical and low-level intelligence that brings our robotic hands to life.

You will own the complete embedded hardware and firmware stack—from schematics and high-density multilayer layouts to the real-time C/C++ firmware running directly on the metal.

Fitting multiple drives, high-density tactile arrays, and power electronics into a hand-sized volume means every decision is a tight balance of space, thermals, signal integrity, and manufacturability. You will work closely with the CTO and cross-functional team, moving smoothly between architecture, circuit design, and the lab to solve complex problems where physics meets code.

What you will do

• Own the hardware architecture. Design schematics and high-density, multilayer PCB layouts (mixed-signal, tight thermal/EMC constraints) built for modularity across product variants—not a one-off prototype.

• Build control hardware and firmware that can't miss a beat. Search, evaluate, test, and integrate actuator hardware alongside motor drivers for compact servo drives; write deterministic real-time firmware (C/C++) for control loops, timing-critical execution, limit monitoring, and fault handling.

• Choose the right sensor and make the data mean something. Search, evaluate, test, and integrate sensor hardware for tactile sensing and proprioception (position and force); design low-noise readout electronics, signal conditioning, filtering, and calibration pipelines to deliver clean, low-latency telemetry to the software stack.

• Ship rock-solid bootloaders and drivers. Build field-updatable bootloaders, low-level drivers, and secure, fail-safe update strategies across product generations—documented and reliable, not tribal knowledge.

• Build interfaces customers actually want to integrate. Implement and maintain fieldbus and hardware communication layers (EtherCAT, CANopen, Ethernet) aligned cleanly with higher-level software and robot controllers.

• Debug on real hardware. Own the lab bring-up process from first power-on to full validation. Trace issues across the hardware, firmware, and mechanical boundaries with scopes, logic analyzers, and thermal imaging.

• Build security into the product from day one. Support Cyber Resilience Act compliance by integrating secure boot, signed firmware updates, and hardware-level trust mechanisms early in the design cycle.

• Build for series production, not just the lab. Design for manufacturing and test (DFM/DFT), select resilient supply-chain components with second sources, run EMC pre‑compliance, and drive hardware through production ramp‑up.

• Work across the whole team. Tight loop with Mechanics, Software, and System Applications—translating mechanical and control requirements into robust, deployable electronics.

What you bring

• A degree in Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, Mechatronics, Robotics, or a related field.

• 5–10 years of experience developing embedded hardware and firmware for mechatronic products, including at least one product taken into series production.

• Proven expertise in schematic capture and multilayer PCB layout (Altium, KiCad, or similar), specifically for space-constrained, mixed-signal designs.

• Strong C/C++ skills on bare-metal or RTOS (ARM Cortex-M or similar) with a deep understanding of timing, concurrency, memory, and register‑level hardware control.

• Hands‑on experience with BLDC/DC motor driver design, current/velocity/position control loops, and low‑level sensor interfacing.

• A strong hardware mindset: you enjoy lab bring‑up, signal‑integrity debugging, and getting to the bottom of transient issues with a scope or logic analyzer.

• Fluent English; German is a plus, not a requirement.

Bonus

• Miniature electronics, high-density PCB packaging, or tight thermal constraints

• Tactile, force/torque, or contact‑rich sensor arrays

• Real‑time fieldbuses (EtherCAT, CANopen)

• Product security: secure boot, signed firmware, CRA, IEC 62443

• Functional safety standards (Machinery Regulation, ISO/TS 15066)

The next chapter of robotics won't be built in a lab. It will be built by people who care about what happens when technology meets the real world.

At TACTILIA, you'll work on one of the hardest open problems in robotics: giving machines the dexterity, reliability, and robustness they need to interact with the physical world at industrial scale.

The technology is taking shape. The team is being built. And the standards for robotic hands and their skills are still wide open.

That means your decisions will have a lasting impact — not just on a product, but on what comes next for Physical AI.

Build the hand. Define the standard. Shape what comes next.

If you're excited by the challenge of building robotic hands that work reliably in the real world, we'd love to hear from you.