Autonomous Underwater Embedded Firmware Engineer

Superorganism; San Francisco, Northern (CA, KY); Hybrid; USD 120,000 - 190,000; Full time

Job summary

Ulysses, based in San Francisco, seeks an Embedded Systems Engineer to own firmware, electronics integration, and low-level hardware for underwater robotic systems. You will develop sensor drivers, real-time control loops, and power management while wiring and debugging PCBs and contributing to PCB design.

You will work across electronics and software with engineers to bring up new boards, diagnose hardware faults, and deploy embedded platforms from bench to ocean tests, ensuring robust logging

Qualifications

• 2+ years of professional embedded software development in C and/or C++ on bare-metal or RTOS-based systems
• Strong understanding of microcontroller architectures: peripherals, memory maps, clocks, DMA, interrupt controllers
• You understand microcontroller software architecture better than AI, and are comfortable reviewing and correcting such software.
• Experience writing production-quality device drivers for common interfaces: UART, CAN, Ethernet, ADC/DAC
• Hands-on experience with hardware bring-up: reading schematics, using oscilloscopes, logic analyzers, and debuggers to diagnose issues at the board level
• Familiarity with real-time operating systems (FreeRTOS, Zephyr, NuttX, or similar) and real-time design patterns
• Familiarity with embedded software standards (MISRA C, BARR-C etc.)
• Practical experience with communication protocol stacks such as CAN, Ethernet/UDP, or similar
• Comfortable with version control (Git), CI/CD for embedded targets, and automated test frameworks
• Ability to work across the hardware/software boundary and communicate effectively with electrical and mechanical engineers

Responsibilities

• Prototype embedded hardware: assemble prototypes from off-the-shelf modules and PCBs
• Debug and rework PCBs: diagnose board-level issues with scopes and analyzers
• Contribute to PCB design: schematic capture, pin mapping, layout review
• Design, implement, and maintain embedded firmware for robotic subsystems
• Bring up new hardware: BSPs, drivers, bootloaders
• Build and own communication stacks: CAN, Ethernet, serial, acoustic links
• Implement real-time control and data acquisition: RTOS, scheduling
• Develop robust logging, diagnostics, and fault-handling for underwater ops
• Support field deployments: ocean testing; real-time monitoring
• Drive production readiness: firmware updates, test fixtures, calibration
• Verify AI-written software: review and correct embedded software
• Create and maintain internal software libraries: portable, modular code

Skills

Embedded C/C++

Bare-metal/RTOS

Microcontroller architectures

Device drivers (UART, CAN, Ethernet)

Hardware bring-up

RTOS (FreeRTOS, Zephyr, NuttX)

MISRA C / coding standards

CAN / Ethernet / UDP stacks

Version control / CI/CD

Cross-functional collaboration

Tools

Oscilloscopes

Logic analyzers

Debuggers

Schematic reading / PCB basics

Job description

Ulysses, based in San Francisco, seeks an Embedded Systems Engineer to own firmware, electronics integration, and low-level hardware for underwater robotic systems. You will develop sensor drivers, real-time control loops, and power management while wiring and debugging PCBs and contributing to PCB design.

You will work across electronics and software with engineers to bring up new boards, diagnose hardware faults, and deploy embedded platforms from bench to ocean tests, ensuring robust logging