Staff Robotics Systems Engineer

GRAM; Palo Alto (CA); On-site; USD 180,000 - 220,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Health coverage

Generous equity

Relocation bonus

Job summary

GRAM seeks a hardware-focused engineer to own the architecture and integration of onboard subsystems for sensing, compute, and communication in insectoid platforms. You will select sensors, modules, and interfaces, ensuring compatibility and performance within strict constraints.

This role combines hardware and software ownership, requiring C++ or Python on Linux, device integration, and hands-on calibration across real-time networks.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in robotics, electrical, computer, mechanical, aerospace engineering, or equivalent demonstrated technical ability.
• Integrated a multi-sensor robot, vehicle, aircraft, or comparable embedded machine containing custom hardware and real-time software.
• Proficiency in C++ or Python on Linux with device integration, telemetry, calibration, and real-time buses.

Responsibilities

• Define onboard sensing, compute, and communications architecture across sensors, compute, and interfaces.
• Select cameras, lidar, IMUs, encoders, and compute modules against constraints like latency, power, and packaging.
• Define interface contracts across mounts, connectors, power rails, and network protocols.
• Establish timing, synchronization, and calibration chains across sensing and compute.
• Integrate hardware and software into subsystems, writing C++ or Python integration code.
• Diagnose hardware-software integration issues such as timing, clock drift, and grounding noise.

Skills

C++ on Linux

Python on Linux

Device integration

Telemetry

Calibration

Real-time bus (CAN)

Real-time bus (EtherCAT)

Real-time bus (Ethernet/SPI)

Education

Bachelor's degree in robotics, electrical, computer, mechanical, aerospace engineering, or equivalent demonstrated technical ability

Tools

CAN bus

EtherCAT

Ethernet

SPI

Job description

GRAM is a self replication company creating populations of insectoids for the physical economy.

Our first research frontier is self-preservation: the base case of physical self-replication. Our machines will survive, coordinate, and recover without humans. We believe scalable machine labor requires more than single-agent task generality or machines shaped in our image.

About the role

You will own the architecture and integration of the onboard subsystems that let an insectoid sense, compute, communicate, and expose its state. Your scope spans cameras, lidar and ranging sensors, IMUs, encoders, contact and force sensors, compute modules, embedded boards, power and data interfaces, buses, networks, timing, calibration, harness interfaces, and the software pathways connecting them.

This is a hardware-centered role with real software responsibility. You will own subsystem selection, interface compatibility, integration configuration, and measured interaction across onboard sensing, compute, and communications.

What you will do

• Define the onboard sensing, compute, and communications architecture, including sensor coverage, compute placement, network topology, power allocation, and subsystem partitioning.
• Select cameras, lidar and ranging sensors, IMUs, encoders, contact and force sensors, compute modules, and interface devices against field of view, accuracy, rate, latency, bandwidth, power, thermal, environmental, and packaging constraints.
• Define and maintain mechanical, electrical, and software interface contracts across mounts, alignment datums, connectors, pinouts, power rails, buses, network protocols, coordinate frames, data schemas, and configuration parameters.
• Establish end-to-end timing, timestamping, synchronization, latency, bandwidth, and calibration chains across sensing, compute, embedded nodes, and downstream consumers.
• Integrate released boards, sensors, compute, harnesses, mounts, drivers, middleware, configuration, and telemetry into working onboard subsystems, writing C++ or Python integration code where required.
• Diagnose interaction faults such as dropped frames, clock drift, bus saturation, power transients, grounding noise, calibration mismatch, thermal throttling, connector intermittency, and configuration incompatibility.
• Maintain a versioned compatibility and calibration record that connects each subsystem configuration to its firmware, drivers, physical interfaces, measured timing, and known limitations.
• Bachelor's degree in robotics, electrical, computer, mechanical, aerospace engineering, or a related field, or equivalent demonstrated technical ability.
• Integrated a multi-sensor robot, vehicle, aircraft, or comparable embedded machine containing custom hardware and real-time software.
• Selected and integrated cameras, lidar or ranging sensors, IMUs, encoders, force or contact sensing, compute modules, or comparable onboard subsystems using quantitative requirements and interface documentation.
• Proficiency in C++ or Python on Linux, with experience in device integration, structured telemetry, calibration, and at least one real-time bus or network such as CAN, EtherCAT, Ethernet, or SPI.
• Diagnosed a measured hardware-software integration problem involving timing, synchronization, power integrity, communications, calibration, thermal behavior, or mechanical alignment using logs and bench instruments.

Preferred experience

• Multi-camera or lidar systems, hardware timestamping, time synchronization, intrinsic and extrinsic calibration, or sensor-to-compute latency characterization.
• ROS 2, real-time Linux, high-bandwidth sensor pipelines, distributed embedded systems, or resource-constrained onboard compute.
• Reading schematics, harness drawings, mechanical drawings, and datasheets while working with oscilloscopes, logic analyzers, bus analyzers, and data-acquisition equipment.

The annual base salary range for this Palo Alto position is $180,000–$220,000. Health coverage, benefits, and generous equity come with the role. This role is on-site in Palo Alto. A relocation bonus is available. We hire to start as soon as possible. We review what you’ve shipped; if it’s the caliber we seek, interviews take about a week, start to finish. We treat your work and conversations with discretion.