Electrical Engineer

Generalist AI; San Mateo, Somerville (CA, MA); On-site; USD 120,000 - 180,000; Full time

Job summary

Generalist AI is seeking a Hardware Engineer in San Mateo, CA to own electrical systems end-to-end—from napkin sketch to schematic, layout, bring-up, and production. You’ll develop sensors, motor control electronics, and power delivery for our robots and foundation models.

You will collaborate with mechanical and software teams, prototype modules, ensure signal integrity, and drive designs through DFM, EMC, and regulatory certifications, enabling scalable robot fleets and embedded AI

Qualifications

• 5+ years shipping complex electronics products.
• Owning full-stack EE ownership from concept to production.
• Experience with highly integrated SoCs and high-speed interfaces.
• Ability to collaborate with mechanical and software teams.

Responsibilities

• Own electrical designs from concept through production.
• Design sensing and motor control electronics for low-latency operation.
• Prototype sensor modules, debug signal integrity, and bring-up.
• Collaborate with CM/DFM/DFT and regulatory certification.

Skills

Embedded firmware (C/C++)

Schematic & PCB layout

High-speed interfaces

Power delivery design

DFM/DFT

Regulatory compliance (FCC/CE)

Vendor/manufacturing coordination

CAN/RS-485

Tools

MIPI CSI/DSI

USB 3.x

PCIe

CAN bus

RS-485

Job description

About GeneralistAt Generalist, we are on a mission to build general intelligence for the physical world and make it useful to everyone. We believe the industries and homes of the future will depend on humans and machines working together in new ways. Robots can help us build more and get more done.We build embodied foundation models, starting with a focus on dexterity. This requires advancing the frontiers of data, models, and hardware, to enable robots to intelligently interact with the physical world.The company embraces both large-scale AI and robotics as core to its DNA. Our team of researchers, roboticists, and company builders come from OpenAI, Boston Dynamics, Google DeepMind, and other frontier labs—with a track record of shipping AI breakthroughs. Before Generalist, we pioneered large embodied multimodal models and vision-language-action models (PaLM-E, RT-2, Gemini Robotics), launched and scaled ChatGPT and GPT-4 to hundreds of millions of users, engineered the foundations of autonomous driving, built next-generation robots (Atlas, Spot, Stretch) and pushed the limits of what they can do (from parkour to manipulation, and testing robustness). We are an equal opportunity employer, and we do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, color, national origin, sex, sexual orientation, age, veteran status, disability, genetic information, or other applicable legally protected characteristic. About the RoleRobots that learn from the world need hardware that can see, sense, and act within it. As a Hardware Engineer at Generalist, you will own electrical systems from end-to-end: from napkin sketch of concepts to schematic, layout, bring-up, and production. You’ll be responsible for custom hardware behind the cameras, sensors, and motor control that power our robots and the foundation models behind them. This is a full stack EE role. In a typical week, you may be prototyping new sensor modules and motor controls, debugging MIPI signal integrity on the bench, writing firmware for a microcontroller, working with a contract manufacturer to push a design through DFM and certification, and managing rollout of new hardware designs to the robot fleet. You will collaborate daily with mechanical engineers on packaging, thermals, and integration; and with software engineers on drivers, interfaces, and system performance. You’ll be responsible for:

• Owning electrical designs through the full lifecycle: concept, architecture, schematic capture, PCB layout, fabrication, bring-up, validation, and scaled production
• Designing sensing and motor control electronics for robot systems that are low latency, high fidelity, and robust in challenging environments with industrial interfaces (e.g. RS-485, CAN)
• Designing multi-sensor architectures interfacing with highly integrated latest generation SoCs
• Architecting power delivery systems with complex power trees and different sources (802.3bt, USB-C PD, LiPo) Battery charging and power path management within tight power and thermal budgets in compact enclosures
• Writing and debugging embedded firmware (C, C++, Rust) on microcontrollers or low level Linux device drivers for bring up, test, and production
• Partnering closely with mechanical engineers on enclosure integration, thermal design, connector selection and placement, cabling
• Driving designs to production: DFM and DFT, EMC and regulatory certification (FCC, CE), test fixture development, and manufacturing ramp with in-house resources, external design partners, or contract manufacturers

You might thrive in this role if you:

• Have 5+ years shipping complex electronics products
• Have demonstrated full stack EE ownership: taking ideas from concept to production
• Have experience with highly integrated SoC based designs (e.g. Qualcomm, NXP i.MX, Ambarella, etc) including high speed interfaces (e.g. MIPI CSI/DSI, USB 3.x, PCIe)
• Have deep experience in one or more of the following: imaging systems (image sensor selection, ISP tuning, frame synchronization), motor control (BLDC drivers, current sensing, encoders)
• Have high dynamic range in your work: from thinking deeply about high level system architecture choices and discussing their impact on model performance with our ML engineers, to getting your hands dirty with bench level soldering and rework, measuring timing delays on the oscilloscope, and swapping in new hardware for a live system test
• Have experience managing external suppliers, design partners, CM / JDMs, including schedule planning, materials sourcing, and production ramp