Sr. Embedded Firmware Engineer, Robotics

Amazon Inc.; Sunnyvale (CA); On-site; USD 193,000 - 262,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Health insurance

401(k) matching

paid time off

Parental leave

Job summary

Amazon is seeking a Senior Embedded Firmware Engineer to design, implement, and launch firmware for dexterous robotic end effectors. You will own firmware sub-domains and mentor teams, working across sensor processing, motor control, and real-time communication.

You will collaborate with mechanical, simulation, and controls teams to close the loop from prototype to production. Strong RTOS/embedded Linux experience and ROS2 familiarity are valued in this fast-paced environment.

Qualifications

• 5+ years of non-internship professional software development experience.
• 5+ years with at least one software language (C/C++).
• 5+ years leading design or architecture of systems.
• 5+ years mentoring or leading an engineering team.
• 5+ years of professional embedded C in RTOS or embedded Linux.
• 3+ years in robotics-related development (consumer, medical, automotive, etc.).
• Experience with two or more firmware-level protocols (EtherCAT, CAN, SPI, I2C, Ethernet).
• Experience debugging firmware/hardware with lab equipment (JTAG/SWD, oscilloscope).

Responsibilities

• Drive firmware interface integration between end effector and robot system.
• Review vendor firmware and ensure quality and integration standards.
• Create requirements, design verification plans, and test procedures.
• Build and test firmware for sensor processing and motor control.
• Support manufacturing releases and production firmware bring-up.

Skills

Embedded C/C++

RTOS

Leadership / Tech lead

Firmware design

Sensor processing

Robotics knowledge

Problem solving

Education

Master's degree in Electrical/Computer Engineering

Bachelor's degree in Electrical/Computer Engineering

Tools

JTAG/SWD

Oscilloscope

Logic analyzer

EtherCAT / CAN / SPI / I2C

Linux

Git / Build systems

Job description

Sr. Embedded Firmware Engineer, Robotics

Job ID: 10568774 | Amazon.com Services LLC

Amazon is seeking exceptional talent to help develop the next generation of advanced robotics systems that will transform automation at Amazon's scale. We're building revolutionary robotic systems that combine AI, sophisticated control systems, and advanced electromechanical design to create adaptable automation solutions capable of working safely alongside humans in dynamic environments. This is a unique opportunity to shape the future of robotics and automation at an unprecedented scale, working with world-class teams pushing the boundaries of what's possible in robotic manipulation.

Amazon is seeking a talented and motivated Senior Embedded Firmware Engineer to design, implement, and launch firmware for highly dexterous robotic end effectors. In this role you will own firmware sub-domains independently. The ideal candidate has extensive experience writing firmware to process a wide variety of sensors, control electric motors, and communicate with the larger system, and can work well both independently and in a multidisciplinary team setting.

Key job responsibilities

• Drive communication interface integration at the firmware layer, ensuring robust, deterministic communication between the end effector and the larger robotic system.
• Review vendor firmware deliverables, provide technical direction, and hold vendors to Amazon's quality, coding, and integration standards.
• Author functional requirements, design verification plans, and test procedures; execute designs that meet those requirements.
• Build and test firmware for electromechanical subsystem prototypes and integrated systems, covering sensor processing, motor control, and system communication.
• Support product releases to manufacturing and customer deployments, including production firmware bring-up and validation, working efficiently to support fast-paced development schedules.

A day in the life

Your morning starts with a new sensor module on your desk: the latest prototype from a manufacturing partner overseas. You jump on a call with the vendor's engineering team to walk through their test results, flag an issue you spotted in the data, and agree on a firmware fix they'll turn around overnight. Getting fast iteration cycles on hardware is how this team operates: you don't wait for perfect specs, you get hardware moving and learn from what it tells you. By mid-morning you're designing the control interface for the end effector: defining how it talks to the rest of the system, what data it exposes, and how it fits into the real-time communication architecture. You sketch the firmware-side changes, then switch to the simulation environment to update the corresponding ROS model so the controls engineer you're working with can test policies against it before hardware arrives. Making things work in sim and on your dev kit in the same day is normal here: the hardware hasn't shipped yet, but that doesn't stop you. After lunch you pick up a code review from another team. They're building the actuator control framework that your end effector integrates with, and their latest change surfaces a new set of requirements you hadn't considered. You leave substantive feedback, and it reshapes how you're thinking about your own interface design. You close the day with a quick chat with a teammate on the mechanical design side who's working on a physical sensor model. They want help writing custom firmware to characterize the sim-to-real gap, and you realize it connects directly to the simulation change you made that morning. What started as two separate threads becomes a collaboration. You open a shared design doc and start outlining the approach together.

About the team

We're developing next-generation robotic manipulation capabilities for highly dexterous multi-finger grippers and hands. Our firmware work spans motor control, sensor processing, tactile sensing production firmware, and the tight integration of the robotic end effector with the larger robotic platform. We build the embedded systems that bring capable, reliable robotic hardware to life.

Basic Qualifications

• 5+ years of non-internship professional software development experience
• 5+ years of programming with at least one software programming language experience
• 5+ years of leading design or architecture (design patterns, reliability and scaling) of new and existing systems experience
• Experience as a mentor, tech lead or leading an engineering team
• 5+ years of professional software development in C or C++ for embedded systems 5+ years of full embedded software development life cycle, including coding standards, code reviews, source control management, build processes, testing, and operations
• 5+ years developing embedded C applications that use an RTOS (such as FreeRTOS, uC-OS, Zephyr, VxWorks) or embedded Linux environments
• 3+ years of development experience with some aspect of robotic systems, including direct, hands-on experience designing, developing, and debugging one of: consumer electronics, medical devices, automotive systems, avionics, industrial, or telecommunications products
• Experience with at least two communication protocols at the firmware layer (e.g., EtherCAT, CAN/CAN-FD, SPI, I2C, RS-485, Ethernet/UDP)
• Experience debugging firmware/hardware integration issues with lab equipment (JTAG/SWD, logic analyzer, oscilloscope)

Preferred Qualifications

• Master's degree in electrical engineering, computer engineering, or a related field
• 10+ years of full embedded software development life cycle experience
• Hands-on experience with motor control firmware (BLDC/FOC, current sensing, commutation, torque/velocity/position control loops)
• Experience with EtherCAT or other real-time industrial communication protocols at the firmware layer (CiA 402 / CANopen profiles)
• Experience with Ethernet/UDP protocol design for embedded systems, including lightweight TCP/IP stacks (lwIP, NetX Duo) and zero-copy networking
• Experience with functional safety standards (IEC 61508, ISO 13849) or safety-aware firmware design (fault state machines, safe-state actions, watchdog architectures)
• Experience reviewing and directing vendor-delivered firmware
• Experience bringing embedded firmware from prototype through production and manufacturing release
• Experience with ROS2, ros2_control, or similar robotics middleware on Linux

• health insurance (medical, dental, vision, prescription, Basic Life & AD&D insurance and option for Supplemental life plans, EAP, Mental Health Support, Medical Advice Line, Flexible Spending Accounts, Adoption and Surrogacy Reimbursement coverage)
• 401(k) matching
• paid time off
• parental leave

Learn more about our benefits at https://amazon.jobs/en/benefits .

USA, CA, Sunnyvale - 193,300.00 - 261,500.00 USD annually

Amazon is an equal opportunity employer and does not discriminate on the basis of protected veteran status, disability, or other legally protected status. Veterans, military spouses, and people with disabilities are encouraged to apply.

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