Firmware Engineer - Actuation

About this role

Apptronik seeks a Firmware Engineer to develop motor control firmware for their humanoid robot Apollo. You'll design brushless motor control systems, optimize real-time performance, and ensure reliability across production deployments while collaborating with cross-functional teams.

What you'll do

• Develop and maintain motor control firmware including field-oriented control (FOC) and torque control for brushless motors
• Conduct system identification, plant modeling, and controller tuning for production actuators
• Design hardware-in-the-loop (HIL) and software-in-the-loop (SIL) testing strategies for actuation systems
• Implement fault detection, fault injection, and recovery mechanisms for safety-critical motor control
• Support hardware bring-up from prototype through production and manage field performance across deployed fleets
• Participate in code reviews, design reviews, and contribute to firmware architecture decisions

What they're looking for

• C/C++ programming
• Brushless motor control and field-oriented control (FOC)
• Hard real-time embedded firmware development
• EtherCAT real-time communications
• Hardware debugging (oscilloscopes, logic analyzers)
• Embedded protocols (SPI, UART, RS485, CAN)
• Control theory and system identification
• Python, Docker, Git