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Senior Robotics Firmware Engineer

San Francisco, CA
About Nimble

Nimble is an AI robotics company building the autonomous supply chain to power fast, efficient and economical commerce. We’re training robot AGI to power a proprietary generalist supply chain superhumanoid, the first robot in the world capable of performing thousands of tasks across the supply chain. We’ve raised over $220M at over $1B valuation and formed a strategic alliance with FedEx to build a national network of autonomous warehouses capable of generating many billions in annual revenue. We are a hardcore and obsessed team of the world’s best engineers and operators. If you are obsessed with your craft, enjoy a high-intensity and fast moving high impact environment, are super high agency in getting hard things done and want to be part of building the world’s most legendary robotics company at the most pivotal moment in history, we want to work with you.

We are on a mission to empower and inspire mankind to accomplish legendary feats by inventing robots that liberate us from the menial. We will accomplish this by training robot AGI to invent and build the Autonomous Supply Chain – everything from the inside of factories and warehouses to your front door – powered by generalist superhumanoids.

Our founding team comes from the AI labs at Stanford and Carnegie Mellon and our board of directors include famed robotics and AI legends including Fei-Fei Li (Chief Scientist of AI at Google and Director of Stanford’s AI Lab), Marc Raibert (founder of Boston Dynamics), and Sebastian Thrun (founder of GoogleX, Waymo; Stanford Professor and considered the father of autonomous vehicles).

Let’s be legendary.

 
 
 
Why Join Nimble?
At Nimble, we are committed to building legendary products, a legendary team, and a legendary legacy. Join us and become part of an ambitious, humble, and resourceful culture where your work will leave a lasting impact on the future of robotics and commerce.
 
Nimble's Core Values:
Be relentlessly resourceful - Challenge conventions and overcome obstacles.
Be legendary - Be the very best and do work that inspires.
Be humble - Prioritize growth, learning, and doing whatever is needed to further the mission.
Be dependable - Take ownership and deliver with high agency.
 

The Role

We are looking for a Senior Robotics Firmware Engineer to build the core firmware powering our next-generation autonomous robots. In this role, you will develop the systems that allow our robots to operate with exceptional reliability, precision, and efficiency in real production environments. You will work across robot control, sensing and runtime execution — building robust, production-grade firmware that scales as we deploy more robots into high-throughput warehouse operations. You’ll collaborate closely with our hardware, AI, and infrastructure teams to integrate frontier AI capabilities into practical, real-world robotics systems and to continually improve robot uptime, performance, and overall intelligence.

Responsibilities

  • Lead design and implementation of embedded firmware for real-time motor and actuator control, sensor integration, manipulation, and safe, high-reliability operation.
  • Own the low-level communication between microcontrollers and peripherals or higher-level compute stack, including CAN/CAN-FD, serial buses, and Ethernet, ensuring deterministic, low-latency, and robust behavior.
  • Design safe-state and fault handling behavior for safety-critical subsystems.
  • Partner closely with electrical and hardware engineering on board bring-up and software–hardware integration for new robot platforms and upgrades.
  • Improve actuation and control performance, such as latency, precision, and reliability, using measurable metrics and data-driven iteration.
  • Debug and resolve issues across development, HIL testing and production environments.
  • Participate in and lead technical design reviews and drive architecture decisions for core embedded systems.
  • Mentor cross-functional engineers and technicians, and raise the bar on firmware reliability, testing, and operational excellence.
  • Triage firmware-related issues to ensure reliability of production robots, and help diagnose and resolve operational issues when they arise

Qualifications

  • Bachelor, Master, or PhD in Electrical Engineering, Computer Science, Robotics, or a related engineering field.
  • Strong experience with embedded firmware domains, e.g. real-time control, motor or actuator drive, sensor interfacing, and communication protocols
  • 4+ years of firmware or embedded systems engineering experience building production robotics or automation systems.
  • Strong proficiency in at least one of the following programming languages: Rust, C, C++.
  • Experience developing on microcontrollers with real-time constraints, whether RTOS-based or bare-metal.
  • Experience integrating firmware with sensors, actuators, and communication buses such as CAN, SPI, I²C, and UART.
  • Proven ability to design, implement, and maintain complex, high-reliability embedded systems.
  • Familiarity with software best practices including testing, documentation, code reviews, and robust architectural design.
  • Excellent communication, ownership, and cross-functional collaboration skills.
  • Willingness to support production operations through an on-call rotation.

Nice to have

  • Exposure to automation environments such as warehousing, manufacturing, or logistics
  • Experience with multi-DOF robotics system, e.g. articulated arms, humanoid, autonomous vehicles.
  • Experience with motor control techniques such as field-oriented control, commutation, and encoder calibration.
  • Experience with functional-safety standards and safe design, e.g. IEC 60204-1 stop categories, ISO 13849, or IEC 61508.

Additional Requirements

Compensation

The pay range for this position at the start of employment is expected to be between $180,000 and $230,000/year. Your exact offer may vary depending on multiple individualized factors, including job-related knowledge, skills, and experience. In addition to cash compensation, this position will also receive generous equity for this position.
 
Culture:
We embrace challenges and strive to make the impossible possible each day. We’re not in this to do what’s easy or to be mediocre. We want to create something legendary and leave our mark on the world. We’re ambitious, we’re gritty, we’re humble and we’re relentlessly resourceful in pursuit of our goals. If this sounds like you then you might be a great fit!
 
Nimble Robotics, Inc. is an equal opportunity employer. We make all employment decisions based solely on merit. We provide equal employment opportunity to all applicants and employees without discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, national origin, ancestry, disability, medical condition, genetic information, marital status, sex, gender, gender identity, gender expression, sexual orientation, age, military or veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by applicable state, federal or local laws.
 
Nimble's Benefits
 
Unlimited Flexible Time Off
Enjoy the time you need to travel, rejuvenate, and connect with friends and family.
 
Health Insurance
Nimble provides medical, dental, and vision insurance through several premier plans and options to support you and your family.
 
Paid Parental Leave
Enjoy paid bonding time following a birth.
 
Commuter Benefits
Take the stress out of commuting with access to fully paid parking spots. 
 
Referral Bonus
Get a cash bonus for any friend or colleagues that you refer to us that we end up hiring. 
 
401k
Contribute towards a 401k for retirement planning.
 
Equity
Be an owner in Nimble through our equity program

 

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