{"id":449293,"url":"https://alion.io/job/foundation-senior-firmware-engineer","title":"Senior Firmware Engineer","company":{"id":173517,"name":"Foundation","domain":"foundation.bot","url":"https://alion.io/company/foundation-3","size_band":"501-1000","is_staffing_agency":false,"employer_type":"direct","is_intermediary":false,"listed_via":null,"ats_vendor":"Rippling","truth_index":{"grade":"A","score":95,"open_postings":24,"ghost_share":0,"stale_share":0,"repost_share":0,"time_to_fill_p50_days":197,"computed_at":"2026-10-25T05:49:26Z"}},"role":"Hardware","role_family":"Hardware","seniority":"senior","employment_type":"full_time","work_mode":"on_site","remote_scope":null,"remote_scope_basis":null,"remote_working_hours":null,"hiring_geo_confidence":"structured","locations":["San Francisco, United States"],"countries":["US"],"hiring_countries":[],"hiring_countries_total":0,"salary":{"min":180000,"max":260000,"currency":"USD","period":"year","gross":null,"usd_annual":260000},"salary_estimate":null,"experience_years_min":null,"visa_sponsorship":false,"relocation_package":false,"has_equity":false,"technologies":[{"name":"C++","optional":false},{"name":"CMake","optional":false},{"name":"EtherCAT","optional":false},{"name":"FreeRTOS","optional":false},{"name":"GCC","optional":false},{"name":"Git","optional":false},{"name":"OpenOCD","optional":false},{"name":"RTOS","optional":false},{"name":"C","optional":true}],"status":"live","first_seen_at":"2025-08-23T00:59:06Z","employer_posted_date":"2025-08-23","last_verified_at":"2026-10-26T04:11:58Z","board_verified":true,"closed_at":null,"days_open":429,"trust":{"level":"ok","repost_count":0,"flags":["company_stale"],"days_open":429},"description":"About Us\nFoundation is developing the future of general purpose robotics with the goal to address the labor shortage.\nOur 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.\nWe 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.\nWe 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.\nAll positions are based in San Francisco.\nOur Culture\nWe 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 https://foundation.bot/culture.\nWho should join:\nYou like working in person with a team in San Francisco.\nYou deeply believe that this is the most important mission for humanity and needs to happen yesterday.\nYou are highly technical - regardless of the role you are in. We are building technology; you need to understand technology well.\nYou care about aesthetics and design inside out. If it's not the best product ever, it bothers you, and you need to “fix” it.\nYou don't need someone to motivate you; you get things done.\nWhy We Are Hiring for This Role:\nTo develop, Develop, optimize, and maintain firmware in C and C++ for 32-bit microcontrollers.\nBuild applications on top of FreeRTOS and write bare-metal drivers.\nDesign and implement peripheral drivers and integrations: I2C, SPI, UART, PWM, ADC, and CAN-FD.\nBring up new hardware: validate power rails, clocks, peripherals, and communication buses.\nProfile and tune firmware for timing, memory footprint, and power consumption.\nDebug complex hardware/firmware issues at the bench using oscilloscopes, logic analyzersand multimeters.\nWrite clear, testable code with unit tests, on-target tests, and code reviews.\nCollaborate with hardware engineers on schematic and layout reviews from a firmware perspective.\nDocument designs, bring-up procedures, and known issues.\nWhat Kind of Person We Are Looking For:\nStrong proficiency in C and modern C++ for embedded targets, including understanding of memory layout, linker scripts, startup code, and ISRs.\nHands-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).\nSolid working knowledge of **I2C**, **SPI**, **PWM** and **ADC**\nPractical experience with **CAN-FD**: frame formats, bit timing, error handling, and integration with higher-layer protocols.\nExperience with bootloaders, OTA/firmware updates, and secure boot.\nDemonstrated ability to debug hardware/firmware interactions using **oscilloscopes** and **logic analyzers** (e.g., Saleae, Keysight, Tektronix)\ncapturing signals, decoding protocols, and reasoning from waveforms to root cause.\nComfortable reading datasheets, reference manuals, and schematics.\nProficient with Git, toolchains (GCC/Clang, arm-none-eabi), build systems (CMake/Make), and on-target debuggers (GDB, J-Link, ST-Link, OpenOCD).\n*Motor control** experience: BLDC/PMSM and FOC\n**Zephyr RTOS**: device tree, Kconfig, driver model, and writing out-of-tree modules.\nEtherCat and FoE\nBenefits\nWe provide market standard benefits (health, vision, dental, 401k, etc.). Join us for the culture and the mission, not for the benefits.\nSalary\nThe annual compensation is expected to be between $180,000 - $260,000. Exact compensation may vary based on skills, experience, and location","description_format":"text","description_chars":3801,"description_truncated":false,"requirements":{"experience_years_min":null,"management_years_min":null,"team_size_min":null,"manages_managers":false,"education":null,"security_clearance":false,"languages":[]},"benefits":["401k plan"],"hiring_locations":[],"hiring_excludes":[],"relocation_offered":false,"industries":["Industrial Robotics","Humanoid Robots"],"lifecycle":[{"event":"open","at":"2026-09-06T08:14:21Z"}],"visa":[],"liveness":{"score":19,"band":"cold","label":"Long shot","p_open":1,"p_active":0.696,"p_room":0.28,"age_days":428,"expected_fill_days":197,"reasons":["conf:0","win:tail","crowd:"],"computed_at":"2026-10-25T05:49:26Z"},"pay":{"stated_usd_annual":260000,"is_top_pay":true},"html_url":"https://alion.io/job/foundation-senior-firmware-engineer","json_url":"https://alion.io/job/foundation-senior-firmware-engineer.json","meta":{"generated_at":"2026-10-26T05:33:56Z","cache_seconds":300,"methodology":"https://alion.io/methodology","terms":"https://alion.io/terms","contact":"https://alion.io/contact","api":"https://alion.io/developers","about":"Alion is a live layer of people, companies and AI agents: who they are, whether they are real and active right now, what they do and how to work with them, readable by people and by agents and paid per call.","catalog":"https://alion.io/catalog.json","usage":{"tier":"crawler_verified","counted_by":"address","units_charged":1,"used_today":7438,"day_limit":null,"remaining_today":null,"minute_limit":300,"resets_at":"2026-10-27T00:00:00Z"}},"offers":[{"id":"company.slices","title":"One company in depth, by slice","status":"live","price":{"credits":0.02,"usd":0.002,"plus_per_slice":{"credits":0.05,"usd":0.005}},"unit":"per company, plus each slice with data","note":"the employer in depth","call":{"mcp_tool":"get_company","arguments":{"id":173517},"rest":"https://alion.io/mcp/rest/get_company?id=173517"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=company.slices&for=job%2Ffoundation-senior-firmware-engineer"},{"id":"market.stats","title":"A market slice: pay, demand and time to fill","status":"live","price":{"credits":1,"usd":0.1},"unit":"per slice","note":"pay, demand and time to fill for this role and place","call":{"mcp_tool":"market_stats"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=market.stats&for=job%2Ffoundation-senior-firmware-engineer"},{"id":"job.search","title":"Open jobs by role, technology, place, pay and visa","status":"live","price":{"credits":0.02,"usd":0.002},"unit":"per posting in a list","note":"similar open postings","call":{"mcp_tool":"search_jobs"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=job.search&for=job%2Ffoundation-senior-firmware-engineer"},{"id":"company.verify","title":"Is this company real and active right now","status":"pilot","price":null,"unit":"per company","request":{"url":"https://alion.io/catalog/request","method":"POST","body":"{\"offer\": \"company.verify\", \"for\": \"job/foundation-senior-firmware-engineer\", \"note\": \"what you need it for\"}"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=company.verify&for=job%2Ffoundation-senior-firmware-engineer"}]}