Senior/Principal Embedded Systems Engineer - Humanoid Robotics

South Bay, California | On-site | $180,000–$250,000 Base + Equity

MBN Solutions is partnering with an exciting, well-funded robotics startup that is building next-generation physical AI systems. As they continue to scale, they're looking to hire a Senior Embedded Systems Engineer to take ownership of the firmware and embedded software stack powering their general-purpose robotic platform.

This is an opportunity to join a highly technical engineering team where you'll work across the hardware and software boundary, helping take cutting-edge robotic systems from prototype through to production deployment.

The Opportunity

As a Senior Embedded Systems Engineer, you'll play a key role in designing and developing the embedded systems that sit at the heart of advanced robotic platforms. Working alongside world-class robotics and AI engineers, you'll own critical firmware components, develop real-time control systems, and help establish the foundations for a scalable robotics platform.

This is a high-impact position offering significant ownership, technical autonomy, and the chance to influence product architecture from an early stage.

Key Responsibilities

• Develop embedded firmware for motor control, sensor integration, and robotic subsystems.
• Design and implement low-level peripheral drivers and hardware abstraction layers.
• Lead hardware bring-up, PCB validation and firmware debugging.
• Develop and optimise real-time motor control algorithms including torque, velocity and position control.
• Build and maintain communication protocols including EtherCAT, CAN, SPI, I2C and UART.
• Contribute to firmware architecture, coding standards, automated testing and hardware-in-the-loop (HIL) infrastructure.
• Work closely with hardware, controls and AI teams to deliver robust production-ready embedded systems.

What We're Looking For

• 5+ years' commercial experience developing embedded firmware in C/C++ .
• Proven experience delivering production-grade embedded systems.
• Strong understanding of embedded software architecture and real-time systems.
• Experience with RTOS and bare-metal development.
• Knowledge of embedded communication protocols including EtherCAT, CAN, SPI, I2C and UART.
• Experience working with ARM Cortex-M or similar embedded processors.
• Comfortable debugging hardware/software integration issues.
• Experience with motor control systems (FOC, torque, velocity or position control) would be highly advantageous.
• Python scripting experience is beneficial.

Technology Stack

• C / C++
• RTOS
• ARM Cortex-M
• TI C2000
• EtherCAT
• CAN
• SPI
• I2C
• UART
• JTAG
• Python
• Field-Oriented Control (FOC)

What's on Offer

• Base salary
• Competitive equity package
• Full-time permanent opportunity
• Five days per week on-site in the South Bay area of the San Francisco Bay Area, California
• Opportunity to join a fast-growing, venture-backed robotics company developing the future of physical AI

About the Company

Our client is an early-stage robotics company developing intelligent automation systems that combine advanced AI with cutting-edge hardware. Backed by significant funding and built by a highly accomplished team of robotics engineers and researchers, they're creating scalable robotic platforms designed for real-world deployment.

The engineering team is collaborative, ambitious, and highly technical, offering an excellent environment for engineers who enjoy solving complex problems and building products from the ground up.

If you're interested in learning more, we'd be happy to arrange a confidential conversation to discuss the opportunity in more detail.

[email protected]