Sr. Embedded Software Engineer, Mobile Robotics

Amazon; Bethesda (MD); On-site; USD 168,000 - 227,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Health insurance

401(k) matching

Paid time off

Parental leave

Job summary

Amazon Robotics is seeking a Senior Embedded Software Engineer with deep Rust expertise to lead development of safety-rated sensor processing firmware for autonomous robot fleets. You will set technical direction for major subsystems of the Safety Perception stack, and own the team’s hardest end-to-end problems across RTOS and Linux on multi-core MCU/CPU/GPU platforms.

You will mentor engineers, collaborate with hardware, functional safety, and navigation teams, and drive features that ensure

Qualifications

• 6+ years of non-internship professional software development experience
• Proficiency in embedded development in Rust; alternatively, strong modern C/C++ embedded experience with willingness to work in Rust
• Experience as a mentor, tech lead or leading an engineering team
• Experience developing RTOS applications or bare-metal real-time systems
• Experience with heterogeneous multi-core platforms (ARM Cortex-A, Cortex-R/M, GPUs)

Responsibilities

• Lead the design and architecture of major safety-rated firmware subsystems in Rust on heterogeneous multi-core platforms
• Set technical direction across the full sensor processing pipeline and influence hardware, safety, and navigation teams
• Own the team’s hardest end-to-end problems and frame solutions where the business problem is known but the technical strategy is not
• Drive perception features for obstacle detection under IEC 61508 certification and ensure data integrity with diagnostics
• Lead design reviews and mentor engineers to improve reliability and code quality
• Produce design documents and safety analysis artifacts for third-party certification and witness testing
• Lead debugging and root-cause analysis end-to-end on real robots at test facilities and in production
• Leverage AI coding assistants as a force multiplier for the team

Skills

Rust embedded

C/C++ embedded

System architecture design

Mentoring / leadership

Sensor data processing

Education

Bachelor's degree in CS or equivalent

Tools

V4L2

I2C

SPI

DMA

ROS/ROS2

Job description

Description

Amazon Robotics is seeking a Senior Embedded Software Engineer with deep Rust expertise to help lead development of safety-rated sensor processing firmware for one of the world's largest autonomous robot fleets. You will set technical direction for major subsystems of the Safety Perception stack (real-time safety applications, sensor processing pipelines, and system interfaces on heterogeneous multi-core MCU/CPU/GPU platforms) that let robots in Amazon facilities worldwide detect and respond to obstacles safely and reliably. You will own the team's hardest end-to-end problems, framing solutions where the business need is clear but the technical strategy is not, and raise the bar for the engineers around you.

We are looking for a technical leader who is deeply proficient in Rust (or strong in C/C++ and eager to work in Rust), is fluent across the boundary between RTOS and Linux on the same chip, has substantial experience with sensor data acquisition or signal processing, and can architect systems that meet the rigor of IEC 61508 functional safety certification. You will influence beyond your immediate team, shaping designs, resolving escalations, mitigating long-term one-way-door risks, and mentoring engineers, all while collaborating closely with hardware, functional safety, and navigation teams to deliver firmware where correctness is not optional.

Key job responsibilities

The ideal candidate is a force multiplier who sets technical direction across teams and raises the bar for associate safety. They will:

• Lead the design and architecture of major safety-rated and non-safety-rated firmware subsystems in Rust on heterogeneous multi-core platforms, where real-time safety code and Linux services coexist on the same chip.

• Set technical direction across the full sensor processing pipeline (driver integration, frame acquisition, point cloud generation, collision detection) and influence peer hardware, safety, and navigation teams.

• Own the team's hardest end-to-end problems, framing solutions where the business problem is known but the technical strategy is not.

• Drive perception features that let robots detect and respond to obstacles under IEC 61508 certification, ensuring data integrity through black-channel diagnostics.

• Raise the technical bar through design and code reviews, and mentor engineers so the team is more reliable because of your presence but does not require it.

• Produce direction-setting design documents and safety analysis artifacts that meet the rigor of third-party certification and witness testing.

• Lead debugging and root-cause analysis end-to-end, from raw sensor data to safety responses, on real robots at test facilities and in production.

• Leverage AI coding assistants as a force multiplier and lead the team to do the same.

A day in the life

No two days are the same. You might spend the morning aligning peer teams around a subsystem architecture in a design review, then head to the test floor after lunch to lead a cross-functional debug with electrical and QA engineers, determining whether an issue is firmware, hardware, or a faulty sensor. That afternoon you profile a pipeline to close a latency budget, then pair with another engineer to unblock their design. Our engineers take complete ownership (from interrupt handlers to CI/CD pipelines to on-site data collection) and frequently enter new areas to meet our customers' needs. As a senior engineer, you help chart where the team goes next.

About the team

The Safety Perception team is a group of passionate embedded software engineers who apply advances in robotics and sensor processing to real-world safety challenges. We write embedded Rust on platforms where correctness is not optional, and we own the full stack: from low-level driver integration to system APIs to the test infrastructure that proves our firmware works. We take our responsibility for safety seriously while challenging ourselves to ship the right product at the performance we need. We pay attention to the details so others do not have to, making systems intuitive enough that safety does not need a second thought.

Basic Qualifications

• 6+ years of non-internship professional software development experience

• 6+ years of programming with at least one software programming language experience

• 6+ 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

• Proficiency in embedded development in Rust; alternatively, strong modern C/C++ embedded experience with demonstrated willingness and ability to work in Rust

Preferred Qualifications

• 6+ years of full software development life cycle, including coding standards, code reviews, source control management, build processes, testing, and operations experience

• Bachelor's degree in computer science or equivalent

• Experience developing RTOS applications or bare-metal real-time systems

• Experience with heterogeneous multi-core platforms (e.g., ARM Cortex-A + Cortex-R/M + GPUs)

• Experience with general troubleshooting and debugging of hardware

• Experience writing low‑level drivers (V4L2, I2C, SPI, DMA)

• Experience with gRPC, Protocol Buffers, or similar RPC/serialization frameworks

• Familiarity developing embedded software in a safety-standards-controlled environment such as IEC 61508 or ISO 26262

• Working knowledge of 3D geometry, coordinate transforms, or point cloud processing

• Experience with robotics middleware (ROS/ROS2) or visualization tools (Foxglove, RViz)

Amazon is an equal opportunity employer and does not discriminate on the basis of protected veteran status, disability, or other legally protected status.

Our inclusive culture empowers Amazonians to deliver the best results for our customers. If you have a disability and need a workplace accommodation or adjustment during the application and hiring process, including support for the interview or onboarding process, please visit https://amazon.jobs/content/en/how-we-hire/accommodations for more information. If the country/region you’re applying in isn’t listed, please contact your Recruiting Partner.

The base salary range for this position is listed below. Your Amazon package will include sign-on payments and restricted stock units (RSUs). Final compensation will be determined based on factors including experience, qualifications, and location. Amazon also offers comprehensive benefits including 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, and parental leave. Learn more about our benefits at https://amazon.jobs/en/benefits .

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