Senior Robotics Platform Engineer - Real-Time Systems

Persona AI Inc; Houston (TX); On-site; USD 140,000 - 210,000; Full time

Job summary

Persona AI in Houston, TX is seeking a Staff Robot Platform Engineer to own the core software stack that runs on our humanoid robots. You will drive the real-time control stack, hardware abstraction, and the robot API/SDK that downstream teams rely on to build perception, planning, and behaviors.

You will mentor engineers, help set the platform architecture, and ensure low-latency, deterministic operation across the robot system from actuators to high-level applications.

Qualifications

• 8+ years in systems/embedded/real-time software engineering, with robotics or hard real-time domain experience.
• Deep C++ fluency and comfort with real-time constraints and determinism.
• Hands-on EtherCAT experience or equivalent fieldbus background.
• Experience designing hardware abstraction layers and SDKs that endure across hardware generations.

Responsibilities

• Build and harden real-time control loops from high-level commands to coordinated joint motion with timing guarantees.
• Own end-to-end hardware abstraction layer, ensuring perception/planning/behaviors are hardware-agnostic.
• Design and evolve the robot API/SDK for long-term stability and clean versioning.
• Own the messaging layer with low-latency, deterministic delivery.
• Develop diagnostics and health-monitoring hooks for safe degraded operation.
• Set technical direction for platform architecture and mentor engineers across the team.

Skills

C++ fluency

Real-time systems

Embedded software

EtherCAT

System architecture

Education

Bachelor's Degree in CS or related field

Job description

Persona AI in Houston, TX is seeking a Staff Robot Platform Engineer to own the core software stack that runs on our humanoid robots. You will drive the real-time control stack, hardware abstraction, and the robot API/SDK that downstream teams rely on to build perception, planning, and behaviors.

You will mentor engineers, help set the platform architecture, and ensure low-latency, deterministic operation across the robot system from actuators to high-level applications.