Robotics, Artificial Intelligence, Aerospace, Deep Tech

Staff Firmware Engineer

San Francisco, CAOnsiteFull TimeStaffPosted 21 days agoVisa sponsorship available

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Required skills

production firmware
Rust
debugged communication buses
contract manufacturers
OEMs
electromechanical systems
cameras
optics
electrical engineering
field-oriented control

Role summary

Watney is seeking a Staff Firmware Engineer to develop firmware for robotic systems, focusing on mainboards and actuators. This role involves board bring-up with manufacturing partners, writing drivers and HALs in Rust and C, building hardware-in-the-loop tests, and collaborating with mechanical and ML teams. The ideal candidate has experience shipping production firmware, debugging hardware communication buses, and working with electromechanical systems. A background in electrical engineering is preferred.

Our Mission

Expand human ambition in the physical world.

Critical infrastructure is constrained by labor shortages, hazardous working conditions, and operational complexity. Watney builds and deploys autonomous robotic systems that increase the speed and capacity of buildout, starting with data centers.

About the Role

At Watney, firmware engineers write the firmware for our robots’ mainboards and actuators, and bring up new boards with our manufacturing partners. They work with our mechanical, electrical, and ML teams as new sensors and embodiments arrive.

How far firmware can take a robot on its own is still an open question: which faults a board can recover from without a person, and how one design carries across new boards and embodiments.

The firmware you write sets how reliable and safe every robot is. The architecture bets you make carry into every robot we build after this one.

What You’ll Do

Lead board bring-up with our manufacturing partners, from specification discovery through first boot.
Write the drivers and hardware abstraction layers that run on our microcontrollers and actuators.
Build and run automated hardware-in-the-loop tests across embodiments.
Build the common firmware base for mainboards and actuators, in Rust and C.
Work with the ML and mechanical teams to prototype and validate new sensors.

You May Be a Good Fit If You:

Have shipped production firmware to millions of devices.
Have written production firmware in Rust, C, or both.
Have debugged communication buses on real hardware.
Have built or operated hardware-in-the-loop test infrastructure.
Have worked with contract manufacturers or OEMs to turn ambiguous requirements into a board layout.
Have worked with electromechanical systems or cameras and optics, electrically, mechanically, or in software.
Have working knowledge of electrical engineering and either field-oriented control or RF.

We’re committed to building a diverse, inclusive team. At Watney Robotics, we welcome people of all backgrounds and identities, and we make hiring decisions based on skills, experience, and potential. If you’re passionate about robotics but don’t meet every requirement, we still encourage you to apply!

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