Staff Firmware Engineer - AMR

Standard Bots•Boston, MA

4d•$180,000 - $215,000•Onsite

About The Position

Standard Bots is seeking a Staff Firmware Engineer to lead firmware for Bolt, its mobile manipulation platform, specifically the autonomous mobile base. The engineer will establish the base’s firmware architecture from the first prototype, covering drive and motor control, power and battery systems, sensors and I/O, and communications with the robot’s compute. The role owns board bring-up, motor control, power and battery systems, sensors and I/O, and firmware test tooling. Success is measured by bringing early AMRs to life quickly, ensuring reliable operation in the field, and strengthening the firmware team. This is an on-site role at Standard Bots’ new Boston-area office, where the mobile base is designed, built, and tested. Some flexibility in office days is available once the employee is up to speed. The work area, electronics lab, test floor, and robots are close to the employee’s desk. The ideal candidate has led firmware for a battery-powered product with motors through production and can work independently while contributing hands-on to complex engineering work. The role requires close partnership across firmware, electrical, mechanical, navigation, fleet, safety, motion planning, and leadership teams. The base salary range is $200,000 to $230,000, depending on experience. Full-time employees are eligible for employee stock options. Regular full-time employees are also offered paid time off, medical, dental, and vision insurance, life insurance, disability insurance, and a 401(k).

Requirements

8 or more years of embedded firmware development experience, including leading firmware for a battery-powered motorized product through production.
Hands-on motor-control firmware experience, including FOC, current sensing, and encoders; traction or steering drive experience is ideal.
Mastery of C/C++ on microcontrollers, RTOS design, real-time scheduling, interrupts, DMA, and peripheral drivers.
Proficiency with oscilloscopes, logic analyzers, DMMs, and schematics, and ability to diagnose timing, signaling, and electrical issues at the bench.
Experience with power sequencing, BMS communication, and charging.
Experience leading engineers through an NPI cycle and helping them improve.
Ability to influence technical direction without direct authority and partner effectively with hardware engineering, motion planning, safety, and executive leadership.
Exceptional written and verbal communication skills, including the ability to explain complex technical risks and strategies to non-technical leadership.
Strong focus on user impact and execution over technical idealism.
Drive to reduce complexity, improve operational simplicity, and identify and address organizational-level technical risks proactively.
Ability to perform well in ambitious environments with firm hardware deadlines and frequently changing plans.
Ability to operate with complete independence and contribute hands-on to firmware development.

Nice To Haves

Prior work on mobile robots, AGVs, or autonomous vehicles.
Experience with swerve, omnidirectional, or other multi-wheel steering-drive control.
Functional safety development experience, such as ISO 13849 or IEC 61508.
Experience with over-the-air firmware update systems for fielded fleets.

Responsibilities

Own firmware architecture across every controller on the mobile base, including partitioning, communication buses, timing, update paths, and diagnostics.
Lead firmware bring-up for each prototype build with electrical and mechanical teams, including board support packages, drivers, and bootloaders.
Make pragmatic trade-offs between immediate build needs and longer-term architecture.
Partner with electrical engineers from schematic review onward to ensure boards are straightforward to bring up, test, and debug.
Set coding standards, code review practices, test expectations, and release processes for AMR firmware.
Own drive-module and motor-control firmware, including current, velocity, and steering loops, encoder feedback, and coordinated control of all wheels.
Own firmware for power sequencing, battery-management communication, charging and docking, and battery swap.
Integrate base sensors and peripherals and deliver their data reliably to the robot’s compute.
Define interfaces between firmware and navigation, fleet, and safety software, and between the base and Bolt’s upper body.
Root-cause issues spanning firmware, electrical, mechanical, and component behavior; drive them to resolution and prioritize work to prevent recurrence across the fleet.
Build hardware-in-the-loop tests, fault-injection capabilities, production-test firmware, and diagnostic tools to identify problems before they reach a robot.
Mentor AMR embedded engineers, review their designs, and help grow the team.