Field Application Engineer - Robotics MCU & Motor Control

Introduction

AI is rapidly moving beyond research labs and into the real world-powering advancements in vehicles, factories, hospitals, homes, and everyday devices. NXP's Global Sales organization is the force that transforms our intelligent edge vision into meaningful market impact. We operate on the front lines of innovation, delivering real-world AI, secure edge intelligence, and breakthrough technologies to the customers shaping tomorrow's world. As a strategic partner at the intersection of customer ambition and NXP capability, our global sales team drives alignment, opens new markets, and builds the relationships that lead to design wins and revenue growth. Through deep market insight and long-term collaboration, we embed customer-centricity into every decision and help accelerate innovation at the system-solution level. This disciplined, client-first mindset enables us to architect integrated, future-ready solutions that deliver sustained value and strengthen NXP's competitive advantage. We thrive in a high-performance, high-ownership environment-competing boldly, executing with urgency, and celebrating results. If you want to win big, grow fast, and work with the customers building what's next, NXP Global Sales is where ambition becomes achievement.

What to Expect

We are seeking a highly motivated, experienced engineer to join our FAE team supporting the rapidly growing robotics market - humanoids, drones, and Autonomous Mobile Robots (AMRs) platforms. You will help our customers design and deploy NXP MCUs, real-time crossover processors, and motor-control silicon into the heart of next-generation robotic systems - driving brushless motors, servo joints, dexterous hands, and high-precision control. You will join a collaborative, passionate team that values creativity, open communication, and having fun while solving tough problems together developing leading-edge hardware & software solutions.


We support flexible work arrangements and a healthy work-life balance. This role can be based in San Jose, CA, the greater Boston, MA area, or Austin, TX - joining an experienced robotics team already established in each location and connected to NXP's broader engineering, marketing, and R&D community across the Americas. Ready to make your mark on the future of robotics? Apply now and let's build something amazing together!

Your Role

• Provide technical leadership to sales teams and customers covering motor-control architecture, MCU and processor selection, bring-up, and software stack integration for NXP general-purpose, real-time, and crossover MCUs and processors targeting robotics platforms.

• Act as the system-level expert for robotic actuation subsystems, ensuring tight coordination between distributed motor-control nodes and higher-level compute, perception, and motion-planning layers.

• Drive architectures that scale from single-axis evaluation to multi-degree-of-freedom robotic systems (e.g., humanoids and AMRs) with synchronized, deterministic control.

• Champion customer and market trend input for new product definition and design strategy via collaboration with product lines

• Partner with customers on the design of joint modules, dexterous hands, servo drives, BLDC/PMSM motor drivers, and high-precision encoder subsystems - from silicon selection through control-loop tuning and system validation.

• Design support through schematic and PCB reviews, bench bring-up, debugging, root-cause analysis, and customer troubleshooting on multi-axis and distributed motor-control systems.

• Troubleshoot complex issues in the lab (schematics, board bring-up, software drivers, control-loop behavior) using oscilloscopes, current/voltage probes, power analyzers, and software debug/trace tools.

• Perform validation and performance tuning for current, speed, and position control loops, encoder interfaces, and real-time motion-control communication links to meet the deterministic latency and synchronization requirements of robotics actuation.

• Deliver on-site and remote proof-of-concept builds using NXP evaluation kits, motor-control reference designs, and motor-control SDK enablement, demonstrating end-to-end solutions for AMR, drone, and humanoid use cases.

• Lead technical training - webinars, workshops, customer deep-dives, and internal alignment sessions - on NXP's robotics MCU and motor-control portfolio.

Core Requirements

• Bachelor's or Master's in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, Mechatronics, Computer Science or equivalent.

• 10+ years in embedded systems development or applications support of microcontroller-based motor-control or motion-control systems, with demonstrated technical leadership.

• Proficient in C/C++ firmware development and debugging with ARM Cortex-M (Cortex-R/A a plus) microcontrollers.

• Hands-on experience with motor-control fundamentals: field-oriented control (FOC), space-vector modulation, sensored and sensorless commutation, and current/speed/position loop design, with a focus on robotics applications.

• Strong working knowledge of motor-control peripherals: high-resolution PWM timers, high-speed and simultaneous-sampling ADCs, sigma-delta modulators, op-amps, comparators, resolvers and quadrature decoders.

• Experience with adjacent power-system topics - high-cell-count battery management, 48V system architectures, gate drivers, and power-stage integration.

• Familiarity with brushless motor topologies (BLDC, PMSM, coreless / cup motors) and common feedback elements - Hall, magnetic, optical, inductive, sin/cos, and absolute / incremental encoders.

• Hands-on proficiency with oscilloscopes, current probes, power analyzers, and motor-control debug/trace tools.

• Experience optimizing PCB design for high-current, high-dv/dt motor-drive environments, including EMC/EMI for noisy power-stage layouts.

• Strong troubleshooting skills with schematic review, signal analysis, and lab tools.

• Excellent verbal and written communication for both technical and non-technical stakeholders.

• Demonstrated leadership and ability to operate autonomously

• Willing to travel, primarily within North America.

Specialty & Bonus Skills

• Familiarity with real-time motion-control communication: CAN FD / CAN SIC / CAN XL, RS485, I3C, EtherCAT, and TSN-based motor synchronization.

• Working knowledge of functional safety (ISO 26262, IEC 61508 / SIL 2-3) and cybersecurity (ISO 21434, IEC 62443) standards relevant to industrial and automotive motor-control systems, including lockstep / dual-core architectures, watchdog, error-correction, and recovery strategies.

• Familiarity with secure-boot, secure key storage, and secure-element integration for tamper-resistant drives and authenticated firmware updates.

• Familiarity with ARM Cortex MCUs and RTOS platforms (FreeRTOS, Zephyr, NuttX) used in real-time motor control.

The base salary range for this position is as mentioned below per year. We also provide competitive benefits, incentive compensation, and/or equity for certain roles.
Company benefits include health. dental, and vision insurance. 401(k), and paid leave. Please note that the base salary range (OR hourly rate) is a guideline, and individual total compensation may vary based on a number of factors such as qualifications, skill level, work location, and other business and organizational needs. This base pay range is specific to California and is not applicable to other locations. A reasonable estimate of the base salary range as of the date of this posting is:
$166,200 to $228,500 annually

More information about NXP in the United States...

NXP is an Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action Employer regardless of age, color, national origin, race, religion, creed, gender, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity and/or expression, marital status, status as a disabled veteran and/or veteran of the Vietnam Era or any other characteristic protected by federal, state or local law. In addition, NXP will provide reasonable accommodations for otherwise qualified disabled individuals.

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