Staff Robot Platform Engineer - Real-Time Systems Lead

Persona AI, Inc.

Houston (TX)

On-site

USD 150,000 - 210,000

Full time

14 days+

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Job summary

Persona AI, Inc. in Houston seeks a Staff Robot Platform Engineer to own the real-time control stack and the hardware abstraction layer for the robot platform. You will drive the robot API/SDK and ensure deterministic execution from hardware to higher level behavior.

You will mentor engineers, set architectural direction, and push for clean interfaces as hardware evolves. The role demands deep C++ fluency, 8+ years in real-time/embedded, and hands-on EtherCAT experience.

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, latency budgets, and determinism.
Hands-on EtherCAT experience or equivalent deterministic networking background.
Track record designing clean hardware abstraction layers, backend-agnostic interfaces, and/or SDKs/APIs across hardware revisions.
Bias toward architecturally simple, verifiable systems and evidence-based design reviews.

Responsibilities

Build and harden real-time control loops turning high-level commands into coordinated joint motion with deterministic execution from actuator to full-body behavior.
Own the hardware abstraction layer end to end (cyclic data paths, timing constraints, fault recovery) for downstream teams.
Design and evolve the robot API/SDK with long-term stability, versioning, and clear abstraction boundaries as hardware evolves.
Own the messaging layer connecting on-robot processes with low-latency, deterministic delivery.
Build diagnostics and health-monitoring hooks for fault detection, state reporting, and safe degraded operation.
Set technical direction for platform architecture and mentor engineers across the team.