{"id":667199,"url":"https://alion.io/job/rhoda-senior-firmware-engineer","title":"Senior Firmware Engineer","company":{"id":685148,"name":"Rhoda AI","domain":"rhoda.ai","url":"https://alion.io/company/rhoda","size_band":"501-1000","is_staffing_agency":false,"employer_type":"direct","is_intermediary":false,"listed_via":null,"ats_vendor":"Ashby","truth_index":{"grade":"A","score":95,"open_postings":42,"ghost_share":0,"stale_share":0,"repost_share":0,"time_to_fill_p50_days":78,"computed_at":"2026-10-19T05:45:15Z"}},"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":["Mountain View, United States"],"countries":["US"],"hiring_countries":[],"hiring_countries_total":0,"salary":{"min":150000,"max":225000,"currency":"USD","period":"year","gross":null,"usd_annual":225000},"salary_estimate":null,"experience_years_min":2,"visa_sponsorship":false,"relocation_package":false,"has_equity":false,"technologies":[{"name":"C++","optional":false},{"name":"Cortex","optional":false},{"name":"EtherCAT","optional":false},{"name":"FreeRTOS","optional":false},{"name":"RTOS","optional":false},{"name":"World Models","optional":false},{"name":"Linux","optional":true},{"name":"Prometheus","optional":true}],"status":"live","first_seen_at":"2026-05-01T21:09:18Z","employer_posted_date":"2026-05-01","last_verified_at":"2026-10-20T01:23:25Z","board_verified":true,"closed_at":null,"days_open":171,"trust":{"level":"ok","repost_count":0,"flags":["company_stale"],"days_open":170},"description":"At Rhoda AI, we’re building the next generation of generalist intelligent robots. We own the full robotics stack from high-performance hardware and robot systems to the infrastructure and state-of-the-art foundation world models that control our robots. Our robots are designed to be generalists capable of operating in complex, real-world environments and handling long-tail edge cases, made possible by our cutting edge research and end-to-end system design. We've raised over $450M and are investing aggressively in model research, infrastructure, hardware development, and manufacturing scale-up to make generalist robotics a reality.\nYou will own the development of Rhoda's low-level firmware stack for distributed real-time control across humanoid platforms. This role centers on deterministic communication, control-loop synchronization, and embedded software robustness in an EtherCAT environment spanning dozens of joints, sensors, and distributed controllers. You will design, implement, and validate firmware components that guarantee sub-millisecond coordination between motor drivers, safety controllers, and perception nodes - bridging the mechanical, electrical, and control domains.\nThis role is an MTS with a clear path to grow!\nWhat You'll Do\nSelect and tune RTOS; define priorities and scheduling; optimize interrupt and DMA paths; harden watchdogs and recovery; measure and guard timing budgets\n\nDesign, implement, and maintain low-level firmware for real-time motion control nodes over EtherCAT\n\nDevelop synchronization and communication layers ensuring deterministic cycle times (\n\nConfigure and optimize EtherCAT masters and slaves (distributed clocks, mailbox protocols, PDO mapping)\n\nImplement real-time safety mechanisms (Safe Torque Off, watchdogs, and heartbeat monitoring)\n\nCollaborate with Electronics, Controls, and Systems teams to define timing budgets and data interfaces\n\nContribute to the architecture of the hardware abstraction layer (HAL) and firmware APIs for actuator control\n\nDevelop unit, HIL, and integration tests for firmware validation\n\nProfile and optimize ISR and DMA paths to minimize latency and jitter\n\nSupport bring-up and debugging of custom actuator controllers and sensor boards\n\nDocument firmware architecture, test results, and safety compliance evidence for design reviews\n\nWhat We're Looking For\nBachelor's or higher in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, or Robotics\n\n2+ years of experience in embedded firmware development for real-time control systems\n\nExperience with low-level system interfaces (I2C, SPI, Ethernet, USB, CAN bus)\n\nExperience with micro-controller firmware development across ARM Cortex-M and similar architectures\n\nProficiency in C/C++ and experience with low-level debugging (JTAG, logic analyzers, oscilloscopes)\n\nExperience with real time operating systems (RTOS) (FreeRTOS, Zephyr RTOS)\n\nFamiliarity with SPI, I²C, UART, PWM, ADC, and sensor interface design\n\nDemonstrated ability to write reliable, well-structured, and maintainable embedded code in safety-critical environments\n\nEvidence of shipping real-time-critical products\n\nNice to Have (But Not Required)\nEmbedded Linux software development. Board Support Package (BSP) development and integration on Linux-based platforms\n\nLinux kernel programming: device tree, Kconfig, device drivers, kernel modules.\n\nExperience with GMSL2 and MIPI-CSI2 camera drivers (V4L2).\n\nExperience with Field-Oriented Control (FOC) implementation for BLDC motor drives\n\nYocto Project / Bitbake for custom distribution builds.","description_format":"text","description_chars":3557,"description_truncated":false,"requirements":{"experience_years_min":2,"management_years_min":null,"team_size_min":null,"manages_managers":false,"education":{"level":"bachelor","optional":false},"security_clearance":false,"languages":[]},"benefits":[],"hiring_locations":[],"hiring_excludes":[],"relocation_offered":false,"industries":[],"lifecycle":[{"event":"open","at":"2026-09-10T22:05:03Z"}],"visa":[{"country":"US","licensed_sponsor":true,"evidence":"H-1B filings in 12 months: 6","filings_12m":6,"filings_prev_12m":1,"green_card_filings_12m":0,"median_offered_wage_usd":252500,"route":null,"cap_exempt":false,"checked_at":"2026-10-15T11:24:14+00:00","sources":["US Department of Labor: LCA disclosure data (H-1B, H-1B1, E-3)"],"filings_for_role_12m":0}],"liveness":{"score":21,"band":"cold","label":"Long shot","p_open":1,"p_active":0.738,"p_room":0.28,"age_days":170,"expected_fill_days":78,"reasons":["conf:3","velocity","win:tail","crowd:"],"computed_at":"2026-10-19T05:45:15Z"},"pay":{"stated_usd_annual":225000,"is_top_pay":true},"html_url":"https://alion.io/job/rhoda-senior-firmware-engineer","json_url":"https://alion.io/job/rhoda-senior-firmware-engineer.json","meta":{"generated_at":"2026-10-20T04:25:34Z","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":4912,"day_limit":null,"remaining_today":null,"minute_limit":300,"resets_at":"2026-10-21T00:00:00Z"}},"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":685148},"rest":"https://alion.io/mcp/rest/get_company?id=685148"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=company.slices&for=job%2Frhoda-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%2Frhoda-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%2Frhoda-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/rhoda-senior-firmware-engineer\", \"note\": \"what you need it for\"}"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=company.verify&for=job%2Frhoda-senior-firmware-engineer"}]}