Firmware Lead (Robotics)

TL;DR

Firmware Lead (Rust/Robotics): Designing and driving the architecture of embedded systems for general-purpose robotics with an accent on real-time execution, safety-critical mechanisms, and hardware-software co-design. Focus on building reliable production-ready firmware, conducting hardware bring-up, and establishing rigorous validation and testing strategies.

Location: Onsite in San Francisco, CA (5 days per week). Relocation assistance available.

Salary: $185k – $268k + Equity

Company

hirify.global is an AI research and deployment company dedicated to ensuring that general-purpose artificial intelligence benefits all of humanity.

What you will do

• Define and drive the architecture of embedded systems, spanning boot, RTOS/runtime behavior, peripheral control, and power management.
• Lead rapid hardware bring-up and set the execution pace for the robotics firmware team.
• Design and review safety-critical mechanisms, including fault detection, recovery paths, and safe-state behavior.
• Establish rigorous engineering standards for reliability, observability, and maintainability across the firmware stack.
• Develop both high-quality production firmware and rapid prototypes to accelerate team learning.
• Collaborate with hardware, software, and AI research engineers from prototype to production.

Requirements

• Extensive experience developing firmware in iterative, high-consequence or safety-critical environments.
• Deep fluency in low-level languages, specifically Rust.
• Strong first-principles understanding of interrupts, scheduling, DMA, memory layout, and real-time constraints.
• Proven track record of leading architecture and delivery for complex embedded products shipped to users.
• Must be based in or relocate to San Francisco, CA.

Nice to have

• Experience with Embassy or other async embedded Rust frameworks.
• Familiarity with ARM Cortex-M or Cortex-R platforms and low-power embedded designs.
• Experience integrating Rust into existing C/C++ systems.
• Background in building firmware for sensor-rich, latency-sensitive electromechanical products.

Culture & Benefits

• Opportunity to build general-purpose robotics at the intersection of hardware and ML research.
• Culture characterized by urgency, technical rigor, and high-quality execution.
• Collaborative environment where rapid prototyping is valued alongside durable architecture.
• Competitive compensation package including equity.
• Relocation assistance for new employees joining the San Francisco office.