Staff Systems Engineer

Staff Systems Engineer 

Full-Time Position | Portland, Oregon 

About Us

Rapta is revolutionizing precision US manufacturing with an agentic native AI Platform trusted by the nation's top defense primes. Backed by top investors and growing 521% year-over-year, we're a Portland-based team building computer vision and robotics technology that keeps America's most critical production lines running flawlessly. If you want to do meaningful work at the intersection of AI and advanced manufacturing, we'd love to meet you. 

Position Overview 

We're seeking a seasoned Systems Engineer to help build Rapta's Systems Engineering practice. You will work directly with the CTO to own the full hardware integration stack — from industrial robotics, real-time motion control and connected tools through sensor and peripheral interfaces. 

What You'll Do 

• Help establish Rapta's Systems Engineering practice — contribute to standards, processes, and team structure as the discipline grows 

• Design, architect, and integrate industrial hardware systems including edge compute platforms, real time motion control stages, and sensor peripherals 

• Write and maintain PLC and industrial control software for motion and automation systems 

• Develop hardware-software integration layers across industrial communication protocols (Modbus, OPC-UA, RS-485, GigE, USB3) 

• Define and own hardware interface specifications for sensing and projection peripherals deployed at customer facilities 

• Design and execute systems integration and qualification testing from component level through full-stack validation 

• Maintain rigorous systems engineering documentation: requirements, ICDs, test plans, and deployment runbooks 

• Collaborate with software teams to define clean hardware abstraction boundaries and service contracts 

What We're Looking For 

• 15+ years of professional systems engineering experience in industrial or manufacturing environments 

• Hands-on expertise in hardware/software co-design, motion control, and industrial automation 

• Strong background in requirements engineering, interface definition, and integration testing 

• Comfortable in a factory, a machine shop, and a terminal window — often in the same day 

Required Technical Skills 

• Expert-level experience with industrial motion control systems — Modbus RTU/TCP, servo/stepper stage integration, motion controllers 

• Experienced writing scalable PLC and industrial control software (Siemens S7 1200 / Rockwell Control Logix) 

• Deep experience with industrial hardware integration across GigE, USB3, RS-232/485, CAN, OPC-UA, and similar protocols 

• Experience designing and qualifying sensor and peripheral interface systems for industrial deployment environments 

• Proficiency in Linux system administration, device driver configuration, and hardware bring-up 

• Infrastructure-as-code experience: Ansible or equivalent for repeatable, scriptable system provisioning 

• Experience defining and executing systems integration test plans and failure analysis 

Highly Competitive Candidates Will Also Bring 

• Experience deploying systems in DOD, defense industrial base, or CMMC-regulated environments 

• Knowledge of manufacturing quality standards (ISO, Six Sigma, IPC) 

• Background in machine vision hardware — optics, lighting design, calibration, and image acquisition 

• Familiarity with edge computing constraints — thermal, power, vibration, and air-gapped network environments 

• Exposure to AI/ML inference on edge hardware (NVIDIA CUDA runtime, Jetson, RTX-class compute) 

Why Join Us? 

• Ground-floor opportunity to build and own a systems engineering discipline at a high-growth AI company 

• Meaningful early-stage equity at a late seed-stage company — this is a foundational role 

• Competitive compensation and benefits package 

• Direct access to the CTO and founders; your decisions shape the company's technical trajectory 

Location Requirements 

This position requires full time, 5 days per week in-office presence at our Portland headquarters. Candidates must be local to the Portland, Oregon metro area or willing to relocate at their expense prior to start. Remote-only applicants need not apply. 

Equal Opportunity 

Rapta is committed to hiring and retaining a diverse workforce. We are proud to be an Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action Employer, making decisions without regard to race, color, religion, creed, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, marital status, national origin, age, veteran status, disability, or any other protected class. 

How to Apply 

No recruiters or agencies — we only accept applications directly from applicants.