Senior Robotics Engineer, Design and Reliability

About Atomic Machines

Atomic Machines is ushering in a new era of micromanufacturing with its Matter Compiler technology. This full-stack technology enables new classes of micromachines to be designed and built by offering manufacturing processes and a materials library that is inaccessible to semiconductor manufacturing methods. It promises to unlock MEMS manufacturing for the many device classes frustrated by semiconductor methods and to open up entirely new product classes. The Matter Compiler technology fully realizes the digital manufacturing dream: bits and raw materials go in, and complete, functional micromachines come out. The Atomic Machines team has also created an exciting first device—one that was only made possible by the existence of the Matter Compiler technology—that we will be unveiling to the world soon.

Our engineering offices are in Emeryville and Santa Clara, California.

About The Role:

As a Senior Robotics Engineer, Design and Reliability, you'll start by owning the uptime and reliability of our prototyping and development fleet of hardware, electronics, and software that drive the Matter Compiler. You'll develop safe-release processes and provide company-wide visibility into the operational status of fleet units, increasing development velocity for all our power-electronic device, materials-processing, and embedded-systems engineers.

You'll rationalize our hardware configuration management process and act as the first line of defense for early diagnosis and triage of unexpected machine behavior. Standing up safe hardware-in-the-loop processes and building the playbooks for scaled operation is second nature to you; of course, you instrumented failure detection and set a playbook for recovery. You can diagnose an issue with an end effector or electrical board and then perform basic repairs on your own, leaving the instrumentation better than you found it as you define a regression test. 

You'll be joining a fast-paced, highly ambiguous interdisciplinary environment with close collaboration across teams—including modeling and simulation, materials science, process development, and mechanical engineering—as we bring truly novel technology to life.

This role is well-suited to an engineer with strong fundamentals, curiosity, and a drive to develop systems-level thinking.

What You'll Do:

• Operate and debug software and firmware for complex robotics with hard real-time constraints
• Work at multiple levels of the Matter Compiler, including software, hardware, and electronics
• Work within cross-functional teams to implement and execute verification tests
• Diagnose and document mechatronic and process issues throughout the hardware and software development life cycle
• Extend machine control software to improve observability

What You'll Need:

• 5+ years of industry experience with precision hardware, scientific instruments, or similar
• Familiarity with C/C++ and Python programming and debugging
• Experience with HIL (Hardware-in-the-Loop) testing
• Familiarity with how motors and robots work at several length and time scales
• Experience designing, building, and shipping complex processes in a hardware-aware environment
• Experience with instrumenting software for observability and debugging
• Familiarity with version control, Infrastructure-as-Code, and DevOps workflows
• A first-principles mindset—you question assumptions, reframe problems from the ground up, and approach challenges with a foundational understanding rather than relying solely on precedent
• Bachelor of Science in a technical field with heavy exposure to machine control

Bonus Points For

• Familiarity with the fundamentals of robotic systems, such as feedback control systems, motion planning, and computer vision
• Experience in identifying needs, then proposing and standing up processes and communication forums that span organizational divisions
• Strong bias toward metrology and observability over tribal knowledge