Firmware Engineer

The Role At Mind Robotics, we're building generalized physical AI—robotic systems capable of dexterous, adaptive, and reasoning-intensive work in real-world industrial environments. Firmware is the connective tissue between intelligence and action; the layer where commands become motion. We're looking for a Firmware Engineer to own the embedded software that brings our robots to life — from low-level motor control and real-time scheduling to the communication buses that tie the whole system together. Responsibilities - Write, test, and maintain production-quality firmware in C/C++ or Rust for microcontrollers and embedded processors across the robot - Implement and debug embedded communication protocols — CAN, EtherCAT, I2C, SPI, UART — across distributed hardware nodes - Configure and manage microcontroller peripherals — GPIO, ADC, PWM, timers, and DMA — to interface with sensors, actuators, and power electronics - Integrate sensors (encoders, IMUs, torque sensors, force/torque arrays) into the robot's real-time pipeline - Work closely with electrical engineers on board bring-up, pinout definitions, and hardware-software interface design - Develop and tune real-time control loops for motors, actuators, and other physical systems under hard timing constraints - Build tooling to support firmware validation, regression testing, and hardware-in-the-loop systems - Triage and debug complex interactions between firmware, hardware, and higher-level software during development and field deployment Qualifications - Technical degree in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, or equivalent - Demonstrated experience (through work, research, or projects) building firmware for real physical systems — robots, motors, power electronics, or similar - Deep fluency in C/C++ and/or Rust for embedded targets; comfort reading datasheets and writing drivers - Hands-on experience with RTOS environments (FreeRTOS, Zephyr, or similar) — task scheduling, priority management, and real-time guarantees - Strong working knowledge of embedded communication protocols: CAN, EtherCAT, I2C, SPI, UART - Direct experience configuring microcontroller peripherals (GPIO, ADC, PWM, timers, DMA) and understanding their impact on system timing and performance - Experience integrating sensors and actuators at the firmware level — not just using libraries, but understanding the hardware underneath - Proven ability to debug across the hardware/software boundary with oscilloscopes, logic analyzers, and JTAG - You are comfortable with ambiguity, move fast, and have an "engineering curiosity" that drives you to understand how the entire system works, not just your part Nice to Have - Experience with safety-critical or deterministic real-time systems (IEC 61508, ISO 26262, or similar) - Familiarity with field-oriented control (FOC) or other motor control algorithms - Experience with Linux-based embedded systems and the boundary between RTOS and application layers - Python scripting for test automation, data logging, or hardware validation