Firmware Engineer, Robotics

About the Team

Our Robotics team is focused on unlocking general-purpose robotics and pushing towards AGI-level intelligence in dynamic, real-world settings. Working across the entire model stack, we integrate cutting-edge hardware and software to explore a broad range of robotic form factors. We strive to seamlessly blend high-level AI capabilities with the constraints of physical systems to improve peoples’ lives.

About the Role

We’re looking for a Software Engineer to join our robotics team to help us develop, integrate and deploy custom firmware to enable our platform. You’ll help architect and implement the firmware that enables reliable, and responsive robot behavior. This is a deeply technical role focused on real-time data, low-level hardware, and sensing - ideal for someone excited about high-impact, cross-functional engineering work.

This role is based in San Francisco, CA, and in person 4 days a week.

In this role, you will:

• Establish norms for a new embedded software team; languages, tool chains, style guide, commit process, testing philosophy, validation flow, etc.

• Write and deploy software across a range of targets, covering everything from bare-metal microcontrollers up to large applications processors.

• Collaborate with hardware design engineers to drive scalable, composable component and system designs.

• Work directly with hardware systems across bring-up, debugging, and deployment.

• Help to develop foundational infrastructure for managing and deploying firmware at scale in a production environment.

• Integrate new components into a complex distributed system.

You might thrive in this role if you:

• Have a Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Software Engineering or a related field.

• Have 6+ years of experience in firmware development and deployment.

• Have a deep understanding of signal processing and sensor integration.

• Have diverse experience with network technologies such as CAN, RS485, or Ethernet.

• Have a strong proficiency in Rust or C++.

• Have excellent communication skills, capable of conveying complex technical information clearly and effectively.

About OpenAI

OpenAI is an AI research and deployment company dedicated to ensuring that general-purpose artificial intelligence benefits all of humanity. We push the boundaries of the capabilities of AI systems and seek to safely deploy them to the world through our products. AI is an extremely powerful tool that must be created with safety and human needs at its core, and to achieve our mission, we must encompass and value the many different perspectives, voices, and experiences that form the full spectrum of humanity. 

We are an equal opportunity employer, and we do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, color, national origin, sex, sexual orientation, age, veteran status, disability, genetic information, or other applicable legally protected characteristic.

For additional information, please see OpenAI’s Affirmative Action and Equal Employment Opportunity Policy Statement .

Qualified applicants with arrest or conviction records will be considered for employment in accordance with applicable law, including the San Francisco Fair Chance Ordinance, the Los Angeles County Fair Chance Ordinance for Employers, and the California Fair Chance Act. For unincorporated Los Angeles County workers: we reasonably believe that criminal history may have a direct, adverse and negative relationship with the following job duties, potentially resulting in the withdrawal of a conditional offer of employment: protect computer hardware entrusted to you from theft, loss or damage; return all computer hardware in your possession (including the data contained therein) upon termination of employment or end of assignment; and maintain the confidentiality of proprietary, confidential, and non-public information. In addition, job duties require access to secure and protected information technology systems and related data security obligations.

To notify OpenAI that you believe this job posting is non-compliant, please submit a report through this form . No response will be provided to inquiries unrelated to job posting compliance.

We are committed to providing reasonable accommodations to applicants with disabilities, and requests can be made via this link .

At OpenAI, we believe artificial intelligence has the potential to help people solve immense global challenges, and we want the upside of AI to be widely shared. Join us in shaping the future of technology.

Compensation

$325K – $405K + Offers Equity