Staff Engineer, Embedded Systems

About Menlo

Menlo Research is an Applied R&D lab building Asimov, an open-source humanoid robot platform, and the full software stack that powers it. Our mission is to make humanoid labor economically viable -- turning software into physical labor at scale. We build across the full stack: hardware architecture, locomotion, autonomy, simulation, and infrastructure. We move fast, ship to real robots, and open-source everything we can. If you want your work to matter beyond a paper or a demo, this is the place.

The Role

We are looking for a Staff Engineer, Embedded Systems to own the low-level software layer on Asimov. This is a senior individual contributor role with outsized scope -- you will define the embedded architecture, write and review critical firmware, and set the technical direction for how software meets hardware on a real humanoid robot. You are the person others come to when the system is misbehaving at 3am and nobody knows why.

What You Will Do

• Own the embedded software architecture across Asimov's compute and actuation systems, from bootloader through to real-time control loops
• Write, review, and maintain high-quality firmware in C and C++ for microcontrollers and embedded Linux platforms
• Define and enforce embedded software standards, patterns, and review practices across the hardware team
• Lead bringup of new hardware revisions, driving debugging and root cause analysis across firmware, hardware, and software boundaries
• Develop and maintain BSPs, device drivers, and HALs for sensors, actuators, and communication interfaces
• Collaborate with autonomy, locomotion, and platform teams to define interfaces between embedded systems and higher-level software
• Drive real-time performance, power optimisation, and reliability improvements across the stack
• Mentor and uplift engineers across firmware and embedded domains

What You Will Bring

• 8 or more years of hands-on embedded systems engineering experience, with at least 2 years in a staff or technical lead capacity
• Deep expertise in C and C++, with strong instincts for performance, safety, and correctness in resource-constrained environments
• Proven experience with embedded Linux, RTOS, and bare-metal development
• Strong knowledge of communication interfaces: CAN, SPI, I2C, UART, Ethernet, and USB
• Experience with hardware bringup, low-level debugging, and root cause analysis across firmware and hardware boundaries
• Familiarity with real-time control systems and the constraints of latency-sensitive embedded applications
• Comfortable working across hardware schematics, datasheets, and logic analyzers -- you debug at the signal level when you need to
• Track record of shipping embedded systems in production environments
• Experience on humanoid, legged, or mobile robot platforms
  

Nice to Have

• Background in functional safety for embedded systems (IEC 61508 or similar)
• Familiarity with ROS2 or similar robotics middleware
• Experience with FPGA or custom silicon integration
• Open-source contributions in embedded or robotics domains

Why Join Menlo?

Staff embedded roles at most companies mean maintaining a mature stack with well-understood constraints. At Menlo, you are defining the stack. Asimov is a new platform, the architecture decisions are still being made, and the person in this role will shape how software meets hardware for everything we build going forward. The work is hard, the surface area is large, and the team is small enough that your fingerprints will be on all of it. If you want to do the most interesting embedded work of your career, come build it with us.