Robotics Firmware Engineer: Real-Time Industrial AI

Formulate Robotics; Mountain View, Northern (CA, KY); Hybrid; USD 120,000 - 150,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Equity

In-person collaboration

High autonomy

Job summary

Formulate Robotics in Mountain View, CA is seeking an Embedded Systems Engineer to bridge hardware and cloud, building robust firmware for robotics-driven manufacturing. You will develop low-level software that interfaces with sensors and actuators and ensures safe, real-time operation.

You will collaborate with hardware, controls, AI, and cloud teams to define device-to-cloud interfaces, perform board bring-up, testing, and validation, and create tooling for diagnostics and field support.

Qualifications

• 3+ years of experience developing embedded systems or firmware in production environments.
• Strong proficiency in C/C++ or Rust for embedded systems.
• Experience working with microcontrollers, SBCs, or industrial controllers.
• Understanding of real-time constraints, interrupt-driven systems, and hardware interfacing.
• Comfortable debugging hardware/software integration issues.
• Strong systems thinking — you understand failure modes and safety considerations.
• High agency and bias toward action in fast-moving environments.
• Actively leverages modern AI tools to accelerate development and troubleshooting.
• Nice-to-haves: motor control, PID systems, industrial automation, Linux-based embedded systems, device provisioning at scale.

Responsibilities

• Develop firmware and embedded software for robotics-driven manufacturing systems.
• Implement communication protocols between devices and cloud services (e.g., serial, CAN, RS-485, Ethernet, etc.).
• Interface with sensors, motors, load cells, heaters, and industrial components.
• Design fault detection, safety logic, and real-time control routines.
• Optimize performance for timing, reliability, and resource constraints.
• Collaborate with hardware engineers on board bring-up, testing, and validation.
• Work with cloud engineers to define device-to-cloud APIs and telemetry pipelines.
• Build tools for debugging, diagnostics, and field support.
• Continuously improve system robustness through testing and real-world feedback.

Skills

Embedded systems

C/C++/Rust

Real-time systems

Hardware interfacing

Debugging hardware/software

Systems thinking

AI tooling

Tools

CAN bus

RS-485

Ethernet

Linux (embedded)

Job description

Formulate Robotics in Mountain View, CA is seeking an Embedded Systems Engineer to bridge hardware and cloud, building robust firmware for robotics-driven manufacturing. You will develop low-level software that interfaces with sensors and actuators and ensures safe, real-time operation.

You will collaborate with hardware, controls, AI, and cloud teams to define device-to-cloud interfaces, perform board bring-up, testing, and validation, and create tooling for diagnostics and field support.