Staff Firmware Engineer - Motor Controls
Confirmed on the employer's own hiring board on Oct 25, 2026. First seen by Alion on Jun 17, 2026.
About 1X
We’re building humanoid robots that work in home - doing the chores, handling the tasks, and giving people their time back. Simple, but it’s not.
To do this right, we have to solve robotics, AI, manufacturing - at the same time, at scale, in a form factor that has to be safe enough to live with your family. If you’re inspired by this, you’ll thrive here. We’ve been at this since 2014 and we’re at the point where the hard problems are behind us and the hard work is in front of us.
NEO is our flagship - a home robot designed to move, learn, and operate in the real world alongside real people. We’re not demoing it - we’re shipping it. We’re excited to meet you, if this excites you.
If you’ve spent your career working on problems that matter and want to see them actually reach the world - this is that moment. We’re scaling, we’re hiring with intention, and we need people who want to build something that will genuinely change how humans spend their time - safely creating abundance for all.
About the Team
The Firmware team owns the embedded software layer that powers every hardware subsystem of our humanoid robot from distributed communication bus architecture and power management to actuator and motor drive control. We sit at the intersection of hardware and software, and our work is directly on the critical path to every product milestone: without reliable firmware, the robot cannot move, charge, or operate safely. If you want to build the foundational software for a new category of physical AI, this is where that work happens.
Your Charter
Own the motor control firmware that turns current into motion in every joint of NEO, and make it robust, safe and maintainable. Your control loops decide how smooth, quiet and compliant NEO feels around people, and how fast the team can move as the actuator platform grows.
Key Outcomes
Develop motor control firmware for BLDC/PMSM actuators, including field-oriented control (FOC), space-vector PWM, and current, velocity and position loops
Integrate and calibrate position sensing: absolute and incremental encoders, Hall sensors, commutation offsets and multi-turn tracking
Tune control loops for high bandwidth, low torque ripple and low acoustic noise, including feedforward, friction and cogging compensation
Implement torque and impedance control modes that support safe, compliant interaction with people
Build fault detection and protection for overcurrent, overvoltage, undervoltage, overtemperature, stall and sensor failures, with safe torque-off behavior
Design motor drive communication with deterministic timing to the central controller
Bring up new motor driver boards and support hardware design reviews for gate drivers, current sensing and power stages
Test and validate firmware releases on the bench and on full robots, and build tools for automated tuning, logging and regression testing
Key Competencies
Strong embedded instincts: you write control code that stays correct under real hardware conditions, including ISR timing, ADC sampling alignment, PWM edge cases and DMA conflicts
First-principles debugging: you find root causes at the hardware-firmware boundary with a scope, current probe and an understanding of motor physics
Safety-first mindset: you treat fault handling, current limits and safe torque-off as core firmware, not an afterthought
Clear cross-functional communication: you explain control and firmware constraints to electrical and actuator engineers, and pull in early during hardware design
Minimum Requirements:
5+ years of embedded firmware development in C/C++ (7+ for senior roles)
Shipped motor control firmware for BLDC or PMSM motors, including FOC and cascaded control loops
Solid grasp of motor physics and power electronics: inverters, gate drivers, current sensing, dead time and PWM
Experience with encoders and sensor interfaces such as SPI, BiSS-C, SSI or ABZ
Hands-on experience with EtherCAT/CAN or another real-time fieldbus
Comfort with interrupt-driven, hard real-time code on MCUs such as STM32, TI C2000 or similar
Hardware debugging with oscilloscopes, current probes, logic analyzers and dynamometers
Preferred Skills
Experience with robotic joints, quasi-direct-drive or high-ratio geared actuators
Background in sensorless control, field weakening or motor parameter identification
Experience with EtherCAT or CAN FD at high update rates (1 kHz and above)
Experience with safety-critical systems or standards such as IEC 61508, ISO 13849 or ISO 26262, including functional safety concepts like STO
Familiarity with a real-time OS such as FreeRTOS, SafeRTOS or Zephyr
Modeling and simulation in MATLAB/Simulink or Python for controller design
Robotics or autonomous systems background
What does a successful 1X Team Member look like
Team members at 1X who thrive here are builders. They move fast, own their work completely, and treat time like it’s the one thing you can’t get back - because it is. They say what they mean, finish what they start, and hold themselves to a standard before anyone has to ask. We push each other to be better, and we do it with honesty and respect.
Benefits
Salary Range: $200,000 - $300,000 + Equity
Health, dental, and vision insurance
401(k) with company match
Paid time off and holidays
Equal Opportunity Employer
1X is an Equal Opportunity Employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, gender, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, national origin, ancestry, citizenship, age, marital status, medical condition, genetic information, disability, military or veteran status, justice system impact, or any other characteristic protected under applicable federal, state, or local law.