Senior Staff Systems Engineer, Embedded Safety

Location: Waltham, MA

Time Type: Full time

Job Description

Boston Dynamics is looking for a Senior Staff Systems Engineer, Embedded Safety on the Safer Robotics Team. You will join a cross-functional group developing safe, reliable, and reactive robotic technologies that enable mobile robots to operate alongside humans in complex environments. In this role, you will lead the systems engineering methodology—spanning requirements generation, structured safety analysis, and architecture trade studies—specifically focused on MCU/MPU-based embedded systems and safety-critical firmware.

You will serve as the central technical bridge unifying hardware constraints, firmware execution, and test validation. Working at the intersection of systems engineering, embedded software, and test infrastructure, you will collaborate closely with Safety Firmware Engineers during board bring-up and driver development, as well as Staff Firmware Test Engineers building HIL/SIL validation frameworks.

Boston Dynamics is a world leader in mobile robots, tackling some of the toughest robotics challenges. For years, our awe-inspiring viral videos on YouTube have shown the world what remarkably capable robots can do. Now we are quickly becoming a recognized leader in automation solutions for industrial applications and warehouse logistics.

How you will make an impact:

• Lead cross-functional systems engineering initiatives to establish embedded system architectures, firmware requirements, and technical development plans for safe autonomous robotic platforms.
• Solicit stakeholder needs and derive, author, and parameterize clear system, firmware, and low-level software requirements.
• Establish and maintain end-to-end requirements-to-verification traceability pipelines across tools such as Jama, Jira, Git, and automated test frameworks.
• Partner closely with Safety Firmware Engineers to define requirements for functional safety features, diagnostic logic and interfaces for low-level communication protocols (SPI, I2C, CAN, UART, Ethernet).
• Collaborate directly with Firmware Test Engineers to translate safety goals and system requirements into verifiable HIL/SIL test plans, fault injection coverage, and CI/CD automated test suites.
• Guide cross-functional teams through structured safety and risk analyses—including HARA, FMEA, and Fault Tree Analysis (FTA)—to systematically identify edge cases in timing, communication, and fault handling.
• Compile requirements, analysis, and verification evidence required to support a comprehensive safety case for autonomous robotic systems.

What You Bring:

• 7+ years of experience in systems engineering, embedded software/firmware development, or firmware validation for complex mechatronic or safety-critical robotic systems.
• Fluent technical command of software engineering tools, including Git version control, Linux environments, Jira, and requirements management platforms such as Jama.
• Proficiency in C/C++ for embedded firmware as well as Python (including pytest ecosystems) to effectively engage with both firmware development and test automation tooling.
• Deep familiarity with relevant safety standards (e.g., IEC 61508, ISO 26262, or IEC 62304) and experience compiling data to support safety claims.
• Strong ability to read electrical schematics, datasheets, and low-level protocol payloads (SPI, I2C, CAN, UART, Ethernet) to ensure hardware intent matches firmware behavior.
• Demonstrated experience acting as a technical liaison between firmware development teams and product development teams.
• Exceptional written and verbal communication, cross-functional collaboration, and conflict resolution skills.

Nice to Have Skills:

• Experience with firmware coding standards like MISRA C/C++.
• Experience with static and dynamic analysis software tools.
• Familiarity with software and hardware testing for HIL/SIL environments.
• Experience with embedded Linux (kernel and user space), real-time operating systems (RTOS), and hardware debuggers/trace equipment (J-Link, Lauterbach, oscilloscopes, logic analyzers).
• Hands-on familiarity with electro-mechanical actuation subsystems, including motor controllers, encoders, and power/current sensing.

We are interested in every qualified candidate who is eligible to work in the United States. However, we are not able to sponsor visas for this position.

The salary range for this position will be clearly stated in the job posting as required by Massachusetts law. The base pay range for this position is between $155,000 - $193,000. Base pay will depend on multiple individualized factors including, but not limited to internal equity, job related knowledge, skills and experience. This range represents a good faith estimate of compensation at the time of posting.

Boston Dynamics will never ask you to divulge your personal financial or account information as part of its recruiting process.

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