Staff Engineer, Firmware

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

The RPU Team owns the real-time compute fabric that sits between intelligence and motion. As a Senior RPU / Firmware Engineer, you will architect and implement the low-level software that drives Asimov's actuators, sensors, and onboard processors. This is a 0-to-1 role: there is no existing stack to inherit. You will make foundational architecture decisions, define the OS-level environment, and build from the ground up. You will work at the boundary of hardware and software, where microseconds matter and correctness is non-negotiable.

What You'll Do

• Architect and build the firmware stack for Asimov from scratch, including OS selection, toolchain setup, and board support package development
• Design and implement firmware for real-time processing units across Asimov's hardware platform
• Build and maintain embedded Linux environments for onboard compute, including BSP bring-up, device tree configuration, kernel driver development, and userspace/kernel interfaces
• Develop and maintain low-level drivers for actuators, sensors, IMUs, and communication buses (CAN, EtherCAT, SPI, I2C, UART)
• Architect real-time control loops with strict latency and determinism requirements
• Collaborate with mechanical, electrical, and controls engineers to co-design hardware and firmware interfaces
• Build tooling for firmware flashing, diagnostics, and in-field debugging
• Define and enforce firmware architecture standards, code quality practices, and review processes across the team
• Contribute to hardware bring-up for new revisions of Asimov, from schematic review through validation

What We're Looking For

• 5+ years of firmware or embedded systems engineering experience in production hardware
• Strong proficiency in C/C++
• Deep hands-on experience with embedded Linux: BSP development, device tree authoring, kernel driver development, and managing the userspace/kernel boundary
• Proven experience taking a firmware stack from 0 to 1: OS selection, toolchain bootstrapping, first bring-up on new silicon, and building the foundations others build on
• Strong OS-level fundamentals: memory management, scheduling, interrupt handling, IPC, and power management in constrained embedded environments
• Deep familiarity with real-time communication protocols: CAN, EtherCAT, SPI, I2C, UART
• Experience with microcontroller and DSP architectures (STM32, TI C2000, NXP, or similar)
• Hands-on hardware bring-up experience: reading schematics, using oscilloscopes and logic analyzers, debugging signal integrity issues
• Strong understanding of real-time systems, interrupt-driven design, and deterministic execution
• Ability to own and drive complex cross-functional firmware work from spec to deployment

Bonus points for:

• Experience with camera integration in embedded Linux environments, including MIPI CSI interfaces, serialized camera streams, and V4L2 driver development
• Deep familiarity with embedded OS architecture: bootloader design (U-Boot or equivalent), secure boot chains, partition management, and OTA update mechanisms
• Experience with secure elements and hardware security modules: key storage, trusted execution environments (ARM TrustZone, OP-TEE), and secure enclave integration for credential and key management
• Experience in legged robotics, humanoids, or high-DOF manipulation platforms

Why Join Menlo?

You'll be joining a small, senior team building one of the most technically demanding firmware stacks in humanoid robotics. The RPU is where intelligence meets motion, and your work will directly determine how reliably and precisely Asimov moves in the real world. There's no bureaucracy between you and the hardware, no committee between you and the architecture decisions. If you want to own a hard problem end to end and see it walk, run, and work, this is the role.