Senior/Staff Embedded Software Engineer
Location: San Francisco, CA / Hybrid, 4 days a week on-site
About the role
Our client is a well-funded robotics startup in San Francisco building autonomous systems for large, real-world machines. It’s hiring a Senior/Staff Embedded Software Engineer to join the team responsible for the safety-critical software foundation underneath its autonomy stack.
You’ll take ownership across real-time embedded software, controllers, hardware interfaces, communications, fault handling, and system reliability. The work sits close to the hardware. You’ll write C++ and C on real-time operating systems running on physical machines, and work across BSPs, HALs, drivers, bootloaders, and board bring-up. Systems like these typically communicate over interfaces such as CAN/CAN FD and Ethernet, and often run on safety-oriented microcontrollers with features like lockstep cores and hardware watchdogs.
Safety is central to the role. When large machines operate autonomously, the software underneath has to detect and handle faults reliably. You’ll build diagnostics, redundancy, and safe-state behavior into the system. Work of this kind is commonly guided by functional safety standards such as IEC 61508 or ISO 26262, with practices like hazard analysis and fault tree analysis shaping how systems are designed.
As a senior or staff-level engineer at a startup, you’ll have real influence over how this foundation is built, with room to grow into a leadership role.
Main responsibilities
- Build and own the safety-critical software foundation underneath the autonomy stack
- Develop real-time embedded software in C++ and C on RTOS-based systems
- Work across controllers, hardware interfaces, and communications
- Develop low-level software, including BSPs, HALs, drivers, and bootloaders, and support board bring-up
- Design fault handling, diagnostics, redundancy, and safe-state behavior
- Drive system reliability across the embedded platform
Requirements
- Strong C++ and C, with deep RTOS experience on real physical systems
- Low-level experience across BSPs, HALs, drivers, bootloaders, and board bring-up
- Safety-critical systems experience, including fault handling, diagnostics, redundancy, and safe-state behavior
Nice to have:
- Experience working on these types of systems in a startup environment
The offer
- Base salary
- Significant equity
- Growth and leadership opportunities
- Hybrid working, 4 days a week on-site in San Francisco
This role suits a senior embedded engineer who wants to own the safety-critical layer that lets large machines run autonomously. If you’ve built this kind of system before, apply below.