Embedded Systems Engineer, Autonomous Ocean Robots

Ulysses; San Francisco (CA); On-site; USD 120,000 - 180,000; Full time

Job summary

Ulysses seeks an Embedded Systems Engineer to own firmware, electronics integration, and low‑level hardware for autonomous underwater and surface systems. You will author embedded code for sensor drivers, control loops, communication stacks, and power management, while debugging boards and contributing to PCB design.

You will collaborate across electrical, mechanical, and acoustics teams to bring up new boards, diagnose faults, and ship embedded platforms that support autonomy and navigation

Qualifications

• 2+ years of professional embedded software development in C and/or C++ on bare-metal or RTOS-based systems.
• Strong understanding of microcontroller peripherals, memory maps, clocks, DMA, and interrupt controllers.
• Experience writing production-quality device drivers for UART, CAN, Ethernet, or similar interfaces.
• Hands-on hardware bring-up: reading schematics, using scopes/logic analyzers, and debugging at the board level.
• Familiarity with real-time operating systems (FreeRTOS, Zephyr, NuttX, or similar).
• Experience with version control (Git) and CI/CD for embedded targets.

Responsibilities

• Prototype embedded hardware from modules and custom PCBs; wire up prototypes and validate subsystems on the bench before production.
• Debug and rework PCBs using oscilloscopes, logic analyzers, and multimeters to resolve signal integrity and power issues.
• Collaborate with electrical engineers on schematic capture, component selection, and layout reviews; contribute to DFx input.
• Design, implement, and maintain embedded firmware for sensors, actuators, and power management.
• Bring up new hardware; write and debug BSPs, drivers, and bootloaders for custom electronics.
• Build and own communication stacks (Serial, Ethernet, CAN, acoustic interfaces) for real-time subsystems.
• Develop real-time control and data acquisition: timing loops, interrupts, DMA, RTOS scheduling.
• Develop robust logging, diagnostics, and fault handling for deep-ocean operations.
• Support field deployments: ocean testing, mission monitoring, post-mission triage.
• Drive production readiness: firmware updates, manufacturing tests, calibration routines.
• Review and improve AI-generated embedded software for robustness and safety.
• Create modular internal libraries portable across MCUs.

Skills

C/C++

Embedded systems

Bare-metal/RTOS

MCU architectures

Device drivers

UART/CAN/Ethernet

RTOS experience

Git/CI/CD

Hardware bring-up

Python scripting

Tools

Oscilloscopes

Logic analyzers

Debuggers

Soldering

PCB design basics

Job description

Ulysses seeks an Embedded Systems Engineer to own firmware, electronics integration, and low‑level hardware for autonomous underwater and surface systems. You will author embedded code for sensor drivers, control loops, communication stacks, and power management, while debugging boards and contributing to PCB design.

You will collaborate across electrical, mechanical, and acoustics teams to bring up new boards, diagnose faults, and ship embedded platforms that support autonomy and navigation