Senior Staff Engineer, SoC Application Engineering

Renesas Electronics Corporation; Plano (TX); On-site; USD 150,000 - 210,000; Full time

Job summary

Renesas Electronics Corporation is seeking a Senior Staff Engineer to lead SoC application engineering for robotics and GPU workloads. The role focuses on R-Car humanoid platforms, AI workflows, and ecosystem collaboration across global teams.

You will drive optimization, system debugging, and reference designs for advanced robotic subsystems, with emphasis on performance and reliability in embedded environments.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's, Master's, or Ph.D. in Computer/Electrical Engineering, CS, or Robotics.
• 10+ years in embedded systems, robotics, or automotive electronics.
• Strong embedded development and debugging with C/C++.
• Deep embedded SoC knowledge: CPU/GPU/memory/drivers.
• Hands-on experience with embedded Linux and system debugging.

Responsibilities

• Act as technical lead for R-Car humanoid robotics and AI platforms.
• Lead collaboration with Physical AI & Humanoid Lab on demos and proof-of-concepts.
• Drive ecosystem partner projects and reusable customer solutions.
• Support architecture bring-up, software integration, and validation.
• Lead root-cause analysis across Linux, ROS2, GPUs, and accelerators.
• Develop robotic proofs-of-concepts, benchmarks, and demonstrations.
• Provide expertise in GPU compute, CPU/GPU/NPU workload partitioning and optimization.
• Support Vulkan/OpenCL/OpenGL/OpenVX in robotics workloads.

Skills

C and C++

Embedded Linux

Robotics

GPU compute

System debugging

Performance optimization

ROS2

Ubuntu Linux

Heterogeneous multicore

Education

Bachelor's/Master's/Ph.D. in Computer Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Computer Science, Robotics

Tools

Vulkan

OpenCL

OpenGL ES

Vulkan Compute

OpenVX

ROS2

Job description

Job Description

The High Performance Compute (HPC) SoC Business Division is seeking aSenior Staff Engineer, SoC Application Engineering – Robotics & GPUto provide technical leadership for customer and partner development using the RenesasR-Car SoCfamily.

This position will play an integral role in the global effort to position Renesas as thepremier semiconductor partner for humanoid robot subsystems, winning design-ins at strategic accounts, distribution partners, and mass-market customers through targeted engineering, optimized AI solutions and workflows, and strategic ecosystem partnerships.

A primary focus of this role will be enabling thebrain, AI, perception, compute, and control functionality of humanoid and advanced robotic platforms using R-Car SoCs.

The successful candidate will combine strong embedded SoC expertise with hands-on experience inrobotics, GPU and heterogeneous compute, AI workloads, system-level debugging, and performance optimization.

Key Responsibilities

• Act as a senior technical lead forR-Car based humanoid robotics, physical AI, autonomous systems, and advanced robotic platforms.

• Lead collaboration with the Physical AI & Humanoid Labto develop robotic platforms, prototypes, proof-of-concepts, and demonstrations.

• Lead ecosystem partner project executionto develop robotic reference designs and reusable customer solutions.

• Support customer and partner programs from architecture and platform bring-up through software integration, debugging, performance optimization, validation, and production.

• Lead root-cause analysis of complex hardware/software issues across:

  • Linux/Ubuntu
  • ROS2 and robotics middleware
  • GPU and AI accelerators
  • Device drivers and firmware
  • Memory management and SMMU/IOMMU
  • IPC and heterogeneous multicore systems
  • AI runtimes and inference pipelines
  • System performance, latency, and memory bandwidth

• Analyze customer robotic architectures and requirements against R-Car capabilities and identify technical gaps, risks, and recommended solutions.

• Support customerRFI/RFQ activities, architecture reviews, design reviews, and technical debug sessions.

• Develop robotic proof-of-concepts, demonstrations, reference applications, and benchmarks showcasing R-Car SoC capabilities.

• Provide technical expertise inGPU compute and heterogeneous processing, including CPU/GPU/NPU workload partitioning, synchronization, memory movement, and performance optimization.

• Support GPU and compute technologies such asVulkan, Vulkan Compute, OpenCL, OpenGL ES, and OpenVX.

• Analyze and optimize system performance across CPU, GPU, NPU, DSP, memory, and other hardware accelerators.

• Support robotic workloads includingperception, sensor fusion, localization, mapping, motion planning, navigation, manipulation, and AI inference.

• Work with Renesas global engineering teams, customers, and ecosystem partners to define requirements for future R-Car SoCs, AI software, tools, and robotic reference platforms.

Qualifications

Required Qualifications

• Bachelor's, Master's, or Ph.D. degree inComputer Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Computer Science, Robotics, or a related field.

• 10+ years of experiencein embedded systems, semiconductor application engineering, robotics, automotive electronics, or related fields.

• Strong embedded development and debugging experience usingC and C++.

• Deep understanding of embedded SoC architecture, including CPU, GPU, memory, firmware, operating systems, drivers, middleware, and hardware accelerators.

• Strong hands‑on experience withembedded Linuxand complex system-level debugging.

• Experience with BSPs, bootloaders, Linux kernel, device drivers, firmware, and user-space applications.

• Strong understanding of heterogeneous multicore architectures, memory management, IPC, DMA, shared memory, and hardware accelerators.

• Hands‑on knowledge ofGPU architecture and GPU compute.

• Experience with one or more ofVulkan, OpenCL, OpenGL ES, Vulkan Compute, or OpenVX.

• Experience with system and GPU performance analysis using tracing, profiling, logging, and debugging tools.

• Familiarity with embedded AI/ML workloads and deployment on heterogeneous SoCs.

• Strong problem-solving, customer-facing, and technical communication skills.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience withRenesas R-Caror comparable high-performance SoCs.

• Strong experience withUbuntu Linux.

• Hands‑on experience withROS2, including application development, integration, debugging, and deployment.

• Experience developing or integratinghumanoid robots, autonomous mobile robots, robotic manipulators, or other physical AI systems.

• Experience with robotic perception, sensor fusion, localization, mapping, motion planning, navigation, or control.

• Experience withImagination/PowerVR or comparable embedded GPU architectures.

• Experience with GPU profiling and system performance tools.

• Experience with embedded AI frameworks and runtimes such asPyTorch, TensorFlow, ONNX, OpenCV, or vendor‑specific AI SDKs.

• Experience optimizing AI models and workloads for embedded inference.

• Experience integrating robotic sensors including cameras, LiDAR, radar, IMUs, encoders, or force/torque sensors.

• Experience developing robotic demonstrations, proof-of-concepts, reference platforms, or semiconductor reference designs.

Key Attributes

The successful candidate will be a highly technical, hands‑on engineer capable of working acrossrobotics, AI, GPU and heterogeneous compute, embedded software, system debugging, performance optimization, customer engagement, and ecosystem development.

This Senior Staff-level individual contributor will independently lead complex technical engagements and help establish Renesas R-Car as a leading compute platform forhumanoid robotics and physical AI.

Additional Information

Renesas is an embedded semiconductor solution provider driven by its Purpose, To Make Our Lives Easier. With a global team of over 21,000 engineers and problem solvers in more than 30 countries, we offer the opportunity to work on world‑leading technology for Automotive, Industrial, Infrastructure, and IoT, shaping a safer, healthier, greener, and smarter future.

At Renesas, TAGIE is our culture, grounded in being Transparent, Agile, Global, Innovative, and Entrepreneurial. It shapes how we work, grow and deliver on our purpose together. This collaborative spirit and mindset drive our semiconductor technology to transform industries and impact millions of lives.

We believe in rewarding our employees with a competitive benefits package alongside their salary. More information will be provided during the hiring process.

Are you ready to join our team and shape the future with us?

Renesas Electronics is an equal opportunity and affirmative action employer, committed to supporting diversity and fostering a work environment free of discrimination on the basis of sex, race, religion, national origin, gender, gender identity, gender expression, age, sexual orientation, military status, veteran status, or any other basis protected by law. For more information, please read our Diversity & Inclusion Statement.

Renesas Electronics deals with dual-use technology that is subject to U.S. export controls regulations. Under these regulations it may be necessary for Renesas to obtain U.S. government export license prior to release of technology to certain persons. The decision whether or not to file or pursue an export license application is at the sole discretion of Renesas.