Sr. Firmware Engineer, Robotics, Frontier AI & Robotics

Amazon • San Francisco, CA

11h

About The Position

Join Amazon's Frontier AI & Robotics team and help shape the future of
intelligent robotic systems from the inside out. As a Sr./Staff Firmware
Engineer, Electronics, you will develop the low-level firmware that brings our
in-house robotic actuators to life—writing the embedded code that bridges
sophisticated hardware and the high-level AI control systems that power our
next-generation robots. Your work will directly enable our robots to see,
reason, and act in real-world warehouse environments, making you a critical
contributor to one of the most ambitious robotics programs in the world.

Your day is rooted in the intersection of hardware and software where you’ll be
wiring firmware from scratch to control custom motors. You might start your
morning reviewing firmware behavior logs from the previous night's actuator
characterization runs, then spend time working alongside motor design and
electronics engineers to debug a torque ripple issue in the motor control loop.
In the afternoon, you could be writing and validating embedded firmware for a
new actuator variant, tuning (field-oriented control) FOC algorithms, and
collaborating with the controls team to ensure firmware interfaces align with
high-level motion planning requirements.

Beyond the bench, you'll participate in architecture reviews with hardware and
software engineers, contribute to code reviews, and document firmware
specifications that enable smooth hardware handoffs. You'll be working on
actuator variants—each with unique power, torque, and speed requirements—and
you'll be the firmware voice in cross-functional design discussions that shape
how our actuators are built and controlled. The pace is fast, the problems are
novel, and the impact is direct.

Frontier AI & Robotics (FAR) is the team at Amazon building the next generation
of embodied intelligence. FAR drives the development and implementation of
advanced AI models within Amazon’s operations that enable robots to see, reason,
and act on the world around them, supporting a number of different warehouse
automation tasks.

Requirements

• Experience in developing functional specifications, design verification plans and functional test procedures
• Bachelor's degree in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, Embedded Systems, or a related technical field
• 5+ years of professional embedded firmware development experience, with demonstrated expertise in real-time control systems for electromechanical or power electronics hardware
• Proficiency in C and/or C++ for embedded/real-time systems, with experience writing firmware for microcontrollers or DSPs in resource-constrained environments
• Hands-on experience developing motor control firmware, including field-oriented control (FOC), BLDC or PMSM motor commutation, and closed-loop current, speed, or position control
• Experience with hardware communication protocols relevant to actuator systems (CAN, SPI, I2C, UART, EtherCAT, or similar) and interfacing firmware with motor drivers, encoders, and analog sensors
• Demonstrated ability to debug firmware and hardware issues using tools such as oscilloscopes, logic analyzers, and in-circuit debuggers in a hands-on lab environment

Nice To Haves

• Experience developing actuator firmware for robotic systems, collaborative robots, or high-performance motion control platforms
• Familiarity with proprioceptive sensing and torque estimation techniques in robots, including integration of force/torque sensors or current-based torque estimation in firmware
• Experience with EtherCAT or other real-time industrial fieldbus protocols for multi-axis robotic drive coordination
• Knowledge of functional safety standards (ISO 26262, IEC 61508) as applied to motor drive firmware and embedded safety monitoring logic
• Experience working in cross-functional hardware-software teams in fast-paced robotics, aerospace, or advanced electromechanical systems environments
• Familiarity with hardware bring-up workflows and DFT (design for test) practices for custom motor drive electronics

Responsibilities

• Develop, test, and optimize embedded firmware for custom in-house robotic actuators, including motor control algorithms (FOC, commutation, current/torque/speed/position loops) running on microcontrollers and DSPs
• Design and implement real-time firmware for actuator state estimation, fault detection, and protection logic, ensuring robust and safe operation across all actuator variants deployed in FAR's robotic systems
• Collaborate with electronics engineers and motor design engineers to define firmware requirements, hardware interfaces (SPI, I2C, CAN, EtherCAT, RS-485), and actuator bring-up procedures for new hardware revisions
• Develop and maintain firmware for field-oriented control (FOC) and sensored/sensorless motor commutation, including tuning current regulators, velocity controllers, and position controllers for high-performance robots
• Build and maintain firmware test frameworks and hardware-in-the-loop (HIL) test environments to validate firmware behavior across actuator operating conditions, edge cases, and failure modes
• Partner with controls engineers and AI researchers to ensure firmware-level interfaces support high-bandwidth, low-latency communication required by whole-body control and motion planning algorithms
• Contribute to actuator firmware architecture decisions, define software-hardware interface standards, and maintain firmware documentation and version control practices to enable scalable multi-actuator development
• Support rapid hardware bring-up and debugging of new actuator prototypes, leveraging oscilloscopes, logic analyzers, and custom diagnostic tools to characterize and validate firmware behavior on novel hardware

Benefits

• health insurance (medical, dental, vision, prescription, Basic Life & AD&D insurance and option for Supplemental life plans, EAP, Mental Health Support, Medical Advice Line, Flexible Spending Accounts, Adoption and Surrogacy Reimbursement coverage)
• 401(k) matching
• paid time off
• parental leave

What This Job Offers

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