Firmware Engineer - Actuation

Apptronik • Austin, TX

19h • Onsite

About The Position

Apptronik is a human-centered robotics company developing AI-powered robots to support humanity in every facet of life. Our flagship humanoid robot, Apollo, is built to collaborate thoughtfully with people, starting with critical industries such as manufacturing and logistics, with future applications in healthcare, the home, and beyond.

We operate at the cutting edge of embodied AI, applying our expertise across the full robotics stack to solve some of society's most important problems. You will join a team dedicated to bringing Apollo to market at scale, tackling the complex challenges like safety, commercialization, and mass production to change the world for the better.

Requirements

• Bachelor's degree in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, or equivalent practical experience; Master's degree with a focus on controls or motor drives is especially valued.
• Minimum of 3 years of relevant industry experience developing production-grade embedded software, with experience contributing to firmware systems from concept through deployment.
• Proficiency in C/C++; working knowledge of Python, Docker, and Git.
• Experience developing motor control firmware for BLDC or other brushless motors, including field-oriented control (FOC), current control, and torque control.
• Hands-on experience developing hard real-time embedded firmware in production environments.
• Experience deploying firmware to devices in the field, including exposure to telemetry, diagnostics, and field reliability.
• Experience with EtherCAT for real-time motor control communications.
• Strong hardware debugging skills using tools such as oscilloscopes and logic analyzers.
• Ability to read and interpret electrical schematics (Altium Designer preferred) and hardware datasheets.
• Experience with embedded communication protocols such as SPI, UART, RS485, and CAN.
• Strong collaboration and communication skills, with a desire to grow technical leadership within a team setting.

Nice To Haves

• Experience with humanoid robotics, industrial robotics, or other high-performance servo applications.
• Strong fundamentals in classical and modern control theory, with hands-on experience in system identification and controller tuning for production motor drives.
• Experience developing in C and C++ for TI C2000 microcontrollers.
• Familiarity with safety-critical embedded system design standards, including MISRA C and ISO 26262.
• Experience with model-based design tools (e.g., MATLAB/Simulink) for control design and code generation.
• Experience with encoder and current sensing front ends, and gate driver ICs (e.g., DRV8353).
• Contributions to firmware tooling, build systems, or developer infrastructure.

Responsibilities

• Collaborate with controls, systems, electrical, mechanical, and software engineers to architect the next generation of humanoid actuators.
• Collaborate with the actuation firmware team to develop, deploy, and maintain motor control firmware, including field-oriented control (FOC), current controllers, and torque control for BLDC and other brushless motor topologies.
• Contribute to system identification, plant modeling, and controller tuning for production actuators, ensuring consistent performance across units, temperature, and load conditions.
• Help shape and execute the Hardware-in-the-Loop (HIL) and Software-in-the-Loop (SIL) testing strategy to validate actuation performance, safety, and reliability at scale.
• Design and implement fault detection, fault injection, and recovery mechanisms for safety-critical motor control systems.
• Help drive firmware quality, reliability, and field performance for fleets of hundreds to thousands of actuators deployed in production humanoid robots, including telemetry, diagnostics, and root-cause analysis of field failures.
• Work with cross-functional engineering teams to bring up actuation hardware from prototype through production.
• Participate in code reviews, design reviews, and pair debugging; help raise the bar for firmware quality across the team.
• Contribute to technical decision-making on tooling, processes, and architectural patterns that scale with the team and product.

Benefits

• Apptronik provides equal employment opportunities to all employees and applicants for employment and prohibits discrimination and harassment of any type without regard to race, color, religion, age, sex, national origin, disability status, genetics, protected veteran status, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, or any other characteristic protected by federal, state or local laws.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Mid Level