Senior Firmware Engineer

Foundation Robotics Firmware Engineer

Foundation is developing the future of general purpose robotics with the goal to address the labor shortage. Our mission is to create advanced robots that can operate in complex environments, reducing human risk in conflict zones and enhancing efficiency in labor-intensive industries.

We are on the lookout for extraordinary engineers and scientists to join our team. Your previous experience in robotics isn't a prerequisite — it's your talent and determination that truly count. We expect that many of our team members will bring diverse perspectives from various industries and fields. We are looking for individuals with a proven record of exceptional ability and a history of creating things that work.

All positions are based in San Francisco.

Our Culture

We like to be frank and honest about who we are, so that people can decide for themselves if this is a culture they resonate with. Please read more about our culture here.

Who Should Join:

• You like working in person with a team in San Francisco.
• You deeply believe that this is the most important mission for humanity and needs to happen yesterday.
• You are highly technical - regardless of the role you are in. We are building technology; you need to understand technology well.
• You care about aesthetics and design inside out. If it's not the best product ever, it bothers you, and you need to "fix" it.
• You don't need someone to motivate you; you get things done.

Why We Are Hiring for This Role:

• Develop, optimize, and maintain firmware in C and C++ for 32-bit microcontrollers.
• Build applications on top of FreeRTOS and write bare-metal drivers.
• Design and implement peripheral drivers and integrations: I2C, SPI, UART, PWM, ADC, and CAN-FD.
• Bring up new hardware: validate power rails, clocks, peripherals, and communication buses.
• Profile and tune firmware for timing, memory footprint, and power consumption.
• Debug complex hardware/firmware issues at the bench using oscilloscopes, logic analyzers, and multimeters.
• Write clear, testable code with unit tests, on-target tests, and code reviews.
• Collaborate with hardware engineers on schematic and layout reviews from a firmware perspective.
• Document designs, bring-up procedures, and known issues.

What Kind of Person We Are Looking For:

• Strong proficiency in C and modern C++ for embedded targets, including understanding of memory layout, linker scripts, startup code, and ISRs.
• Hands-on experience building production firmware on FreeRTOS (tasks, queues, semaphores, mutexes, priority inversion, stack sizing) and on bare-metal systems (super-loops, interrupt-driven designs).
• Solid working knowledge of I2C, SPI, PWM, and ADC.
• Practical experience with CAN-FD: frame formats, bit timing, error handling, and integration with higher-layer protocols.
• Experience with bootloaders, OTA/firmware updates, and secure boot.
• Demonstrated ability to debug hardware/firmware interactions using oscilloscopes and logic analyzers (e.g., Saleae, Keysight, Tektronix) capturing signals, decoding protocols, and reasoning from waveforms to root cause.
• Comfortable reading datasheets, reference manuals, and schematics.
• Proficient with Git, toolchains (GCC/Clang, arm-none-eabi), build systems (CMake/Make), and on-target debuggers (GDB, J-Link, ST-Link, OpenOCD).
• Motor control experience: BLDC/PMSM and FOC.
• Zephyr RTOS: device tree, Kconfig, driver model, and writing out-of-tree modules.
• EtherCat and FoE.

We provide market standard benefits (health, vision, dental, 401k, etc.). Join us for the culture and the mission, not for the benefits.

Salary: The annual compensation is expected to be between $180,000 - $260,000. Exact compensation may vary based on skills, experience, and location.