Staff Embedded Software Engineer

Who you are

• 8+ years of experience developing embedded or firmware software for complex hardware systems
• Strong, recent hands-on experience programming in C++
• Experience with microcontrollers or systems-on-chip, RTOS or embedded operating systems, device drivers, peripherals, and hardware bring-up
• Strong knowledge of interrupts, memory management, communication protocols, timing, concurrency, and embedded debugging
• Experience delivering software across the full development lifecycle
• Proven experience delivering software across the full development lifecycle
• Demonstrated technical leadership via design ownership, mentorship, or engineering process improvements
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills with a highly collaborative, team-oriented mindset
• Enthusiasm for working in a fast-paced, dynamic startup environment
• Willingness to travel occasionally
• U.S. work authorization required
• Background in robotics, autonomous systems, automotive, aerospace, medical devices, industrial automation, or other high-reliability systems
• Familiarity with functional safety standards or methods such as IEC 61508, ISO 26262, ISO 13849, FMEA, FTA, HARA, or STPA
• Experience with embedded Linux, QNX, AUTOSAR, FreeRTOS, Zephyr, or similar environments
• Experience integrating sensors, actuators, motor controls, or distributed compute systems
• Experience with hardware-in-the-loop (HIL) testing, CI/CD, diagnostics, field reliability, or incident investigation

What the job involves

• Collaborative Robotics is seeking a Staff Embedded Software Engineer to build the production embedded software that powers our robots
• In this role, you will work closely with hardware, developing firmware, device drivers, time-critical embedded software, diagnostics, and fault-handling systems
• You will play a key part in shaping robot behavior, reliability, performance, and safety
• This is a hands-on technical leadership position
• You will continue to write and review production-grade C++, drive key technical decisions, mentor fellow engineers, and collaborate closely with our Hardware, Systems, Controls, Safety and Test teams
• Prior functional safety expertise is a plus, but not required
• Join us to reimagine the future of human-robot interaction
• Collaborative Robotics is a team of innovators dedicated to redefining the future of human-robot interaction
• We are building a world where robots act as a trusted extension of your surroundings—robots that adapt and react to you, not the other way around
• This position is based onsite at our Santa Clara, CA headquarters. We offer a relocation stipend for candidates living more than 50 miles away
• Design & Development: Design, implement, test, and maintain production embedded software using C++
• System Ownership: Develop firmware, device drivers, hardware interfaces, diagnostics, and fault-handling mechanisms
• Full Lifecycle Ownership: Own software from requirements through integration, verification, release, and field support
• System Reliability: Build reliable, time-critical systems that account for timing constraints, concurrency, resource limitations, edge cases, and hardware failures
• Cross-Functional Collaboration: Partner with engineering teams to define and validate safe and trustworthy robot behavior
• Technical Leadership: Lead root-cause investigations and drive improvements in architecture, testing, code quality, documentation, and release practices
• Mentorship: Provide technical leadership and mentorship across the embedded software team