Principal AI Engineer - Electrical / Embedded (Internal Use)

• Design and develop low-power electrical architectures, including power distribution and management systems, for autonomous robotic platforms (especially battery-powered/aerial).
• Design, layout, fabricate, and test custom PCBs for sensor integration, power management, motor control, and embedded processing.
• Select, integrate, and interface various sensors (e.g., IMUs, LiDAR, cameras, GPS, encoders) at the hardware level, ensuring signal integrity.
• Develop and test embedded software/firmware (C/C++) for microcontrollers (e.g., ARM Cortex-M, ESP32) and potentially SoCs for real-time control, sensor data acquisition, and communication.
• Implement and manage communication interfaces and protocols (e.g., I2C, SPI, UART, CAN, Ethernet, Wi-Fi).
• Work with real-time operating systems (RTOS) and/or embedded Linux environments.
• Integrate and test embedded systems with flight control systems (e.g., PX4) at the hardware and firmware level.
• Investigate and potentially implement firmware optimizations for edge AI tasks on resource-constrained hardware (MCUs, potentially NPUs/embedded GPUs).
• Conduct validation and performance testing (including flight tests) focusing on electrical robustness, power efficiency, signal integrity, and embedded system performance.
• Collaborate closely with mechanical, control, software, and AI engineers to ensure seamless hardware/firmware integration.
• Create and maintain thorough technical documentation (schematics, PCB layouts, firmware specifications, test plans/reports).

Requirements

Required Qualifications:

• Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, Robotics, or a related field.
• 3+ years of experience in robotics hardware, electrical, or embedded systems design and development, or equivalent academic R&D experience.
• Proficiency in C/C++ programming for embedded platforms.
• Strong hands-on experience with PCB design tools (e.g., Altium, KiCad, Eagle), circuit design, simulation (e.g., SPICE), and board bring-up/debugging.
• Solid understanding of microcontroller architectures, embedded systems design, digital and analog electronics, and communication protocols.
• Experience with sensor integration and signal conditioning.
• Experience with RTOS and/or embedded Linux.

Preferred Qualifications:

• PhD in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, Robotics, or a related field.
• Experience designing energy-efficient systems and advanced power management techniques, especially for aerial platforms.
• Experience integrating hardware accelerators (e.g., NPUs, embedded GPUs, FPGAs) at the hardware/firmware level.
• Familiarity with deploying optimized AI models (e.g., using TensorFlow Lite, ONNX Runtime, TensorRT) on embedded targets.
• Experience with flight control systems (e.g., PX4) hardware/firmware integration.
• Familiarity with relevant robotics safety standards (e.g., ISO 10218, ISO 13849) and functional safety concepts (e.g., ISO 26262, IEC 61508).
• Experience with high-speed digital design or RF design.
• Demonstrated ability to prototype, deploy, and iterate on electrical/embedded solutions in field environments.
• Experience with ROS/ROS2 interaction at the embedded level.
• A strong research record or portfolio in embedded systems, robotics hardware, or real-time processing.