Robot Platform Engineer - Humanoid (human)

Über diese Stelle

At NEURA Robotics, we are building 4NE1, a cognitive humanoid robot designed to operate safely and autonomously in real-world environments. We are looking for a Robot Platform Engineer to join our Humanoid team and help develop the software foundation that connects hardware, controls, middleware, and applications into a reliable production-ready robotics platform.

This role sits at the intersection of robotics software, embedded systems, distributed systems, middleware, and hardware integration. You will work directly with engineers across locomotion, whole-body control, manipulation, perception, state estimation, and embedded software to ensure the humanoid platform operates reliably on real hardware.

We are looking for a strong C++ software engineer who enjoys working close to the robot, solving system-level challenges, and building robust software infrastructure for complex robotic systems.

YOUR MISSION & CHALLENGES

HUMANOID PLATFORM INTEGRATION

- Develop and maintain the software abstraction layer connecting 4NE1 hardware capabilities to NEURA's platform software.

- Integrate actuators, joints, limbs, hands, sensors, safety systems, and robot controllers into a unified software architecture.

- Create and maintain hardware interfaces that expose robot capabilities to control, planning, and application layers.

- Collaborate closely with controls, locomotion, and hardware teams on platform-wide integration.

MIDDLEWARE & SYSTEM INTEGRATION

- Integrate software components across the humanoid stack, including locomotion, manipulation, whole-body control, state estimation, perception, diagnostics, and robot operations.

- Design and maintain communication pathways between embedded systems, robot software, and higher-level applications.

- Work with DDS-based communication systems and real-time software pipelines.

- Support deployment and integration of robotics middleware frameworks such as ROS 2, Dora, DDS-native architectures, or other distributed robotics systems.

- Collaborate with Middleware Engineers on the broader software platform architecture.

ROBOT LIFECYCLE & STATE MANAGEMENT

- Design and maintain the humanoid operational state machine covering:
BOOT → HOMING → STAND → OPERATIONAL → FAULT → E-STOP → RECOVERY

- Implement transition guards, recovery procedures, timeout handling, and fault escalation mechanisms.

- Ensure safe and predictable robot behavior throughout all operational phases.

CONTROLLER & MODE MANAGEMENT

- Develop and maintain software for robot operating modes, including:

- Locomotion

- Standing and balancing

- Manipulation

- Whole-body control

- Gravity compensation

- Service and maintenance modes

- Recovery procedures

- Implement safe controller switching and mode-transition logic.

ROBOT BRING-UP & HARDWARE INTEGRATION

- Develop software responsible for startup, calibration, homing, and shutdown procedures.

- Integrate sensors, actuators, motor controllers, and embedded subsystems.

- Support robot bring-up and commissioning activities on physical hardware.

- Debug software issues in real-world environments where timing, synchronization, and hardware behavior matter.

FAULT MANAGEMENT & HEALTH MONITORING

- Develop watchdog and fault-management mechanisms.

- Implement fault detection, classification, recovery, and escalation logic.

- Build robot-wide health monitoring systems covering:

- Joint and actuator health

- Thermal monitoring

- Controller status

- Communication health

- Sensor availability

- System diagnostics

- Ensure robust and safe robot operation under both expected and unexpected conditions.

ROBOT API DEVELOPMENT

- Develop and maintain gRPC-based robot control services.

- Implement APIs for operational state management, diagnostics, fault handling, telemetry, and robot control.

- Contribute to Protocol Buffer definitions and API evolution together with platform and SDK teams.

TESTING & VALIDATION

- Develop platform-level integration tests covering the complete humanoid system.

- Validate software in simulation environments such as MuJoCo and Isaac Sim.

- Support continuous integration and automated testing pipelines.

- Verify functionality on physical 4NE-1 robots.

WHAT WE ARE LOOKING FOR

- Bachelor's or Master's degree in Computer Science, Robotics, Electrical Engineering, Software Engineering, Mechatronics, or a related field.

- Strong software engineering skills in modern C++ (C++17 or later).

- Experience working with embedded systems or hardware-near software.

- Strong Linux development experience, including:

- Multi-threaded applications

- Debugging and profiling

- Process and memory management

- Performance optimization

- Experience developing real-time or latency-sensitive applications.

- Experience with DDS-based communication systems such as FastDDS, Cyclone DDS, RTI Connext, or comparable distributed communication frameworks.

- Experience integrating software across complex systems involving hardware, sensors, controllers, and distributed software services.

- Practical experience working with physical robots or robotic hardware platforms, not solely simulation environments.

- Experience bringing up, integrating, troubleshooting, or deploying robotic systems on real hardware.

- Strong understanding of software architecture, system integration, and debugging in complex environments.

- Experience designing and implementing state machines for operational and fault-management workflows.

- Familiarity with gRPC and Protocol Buffers.

- Experience with containerized development environments using Docker, Nix, Podman, or comparable technologies.

- Familiarity with modern software engineering practices, including CI/CD pipelines, dependency management, packaging, and reproducible build environments.

- Familiarity with…