Your mission & challenges

• Robot abstraction integration: working in robot abstraction layer code — implementing the abstraction surface that maps your platform's hardware capabilities (joints, limbs, end-effectors, sensors) to the shared platform API. Conceptually similar to authoring a ros2_control hardware interface, an OROCOS RTT component, or a vendor-SDK adapter — but more vertically integrated.
• Middleware wiring for your platform: typically ROS 2 launch graph + ros2_control YAML + DDS QoS on platforms using the standard middleware path; OROCOS RTT component pipelines on platforms with hard-RT control loops that exceed ROS 2 callback timing budgets; Apex.OS on SIL/PLd-certified configurations (Industrial MM). Sensor topic plumbing and ObsAssembler wiring regardless of middleware choice. Partnered with the Robotics Middleware Engineer for the broader middleware stack architecture.
• Operational state machine: BOOT HOMING OPERATIONAL FAULT E-STOP RECOVERY for your specific platform, including all transition guards, entry/exit actions, and timeout handling.
• Mode switching: active controller selection, mode transition guards, safe mode entry/exit, gravity-compensation-only mode.
• Power-on/off sequences: boot sequencing, drive enable/disable ordering, homing procedure orchestration, controlled shutdown.
• Watchdog and fault management: fault classification (recoverable vs safety-critical), recovery action selection, escalation to E-stop.
• Robot-level health monitoring: aggregating diagnostics, joint state health, drive temperature, joint limit proximity, communication latency.
• gRPC server implementation: mode commands, state queries, fault acknowledgement, streaming joint state, operational state, diagnostics.
• Proto message co-ownership for the robot control API with the Platform Architect and Robot Client SDK Engineer.
• Platform integration test suite: end-to-end CI test coverage in simulation (MuJoCo / Isaac Sim) and on real hardware.

What we can look forward to

• Strong C++ — modern features (C++17 or later), real-time-safe patterns, allocation discipline.
• State machine design experience for complex robotic systems: clean separation of states, transition guards, fault handling. Familiarity with hierarchical state machine patterns (Boost.SML, sc::statechart, BehaviorTree.CPP, or equivalent).
• gRPC and protobuf: API server implementation, streaming RPCs, backward-compatible proto evolution.
• Robot abstraction layer experience from prior production work — expressed through ANY ONE of the following equivalent paths (no single framework is a hard gate): ros2_control hardware interfaces (Jazzy or Humble); MoveIt2 hardware interface authoring; OROCOS RTT components for hard-RT control pipelines; Apex.OS deployment on a real platform; vendor SDKs such as Franka Control Interface, Universal Robots URX, KUKA Sunrise.OS, ABB EGM, or comparable; or proprietary in-house robot abstraction layers from prior production work.

Nice to Have

• Hands-on with MORE THAN ONE of the robot abstraction layer paths above — multi-stack experience speeds onboarding.
• ROS 2 (Jazzy or Humble) production hands-on — currently the most common middleware path on NEURA platforms.