Senior Embedded Linux Engineer

Apptronik · Austin, TX · 1 wk ago

Information TechnologyFull-time

About the role

Apptronik is a human-centered robotics company developing AI-powered robots to support humanity in every facet of life. Our flagship humanoid robot, Apollo, is built to collaborate thoughtfully with people, starting with critical industries such as manufacturing and logistics, with future applications in healthcare, the home, and beyond. We operate at the cutting edge of embodied AI, applying our expertise across the full robotics stack to solve some of society's most important problems. You will join a team dedicated to bringing Apollo to market at scale, tackling the complex challenges like safety, commercialization, and mass production to change the world for the better.

Responsibilities

As a Senior Embedded Linux Engineer, you will own the entire Linux platform ecosystem. You aren't just "using a build tool"; you are architecting a custom distribution from the ground up to ensure our robots are performant, secure, and field-ready. Your mission is to manage the full lifecycle of the OS: from factory provisioning and secure imaging to real-time kernel tuning and reliable OTA updates.

Custom OS Architecture & Distribution: Architect and maintain a custom, production-grade Linux distribution using Yocto, Buildroot, or an equivalent professional build system.
Hardware Enablement & Performance Optimization: Perform low-level kernel configuration and tuning to meet the strict latency requirements of humanoid robotics.
Platform Resilience, Provisioning & Updates: Architect the workflows for initial device provisioning, including secure boot initialization, disk partitioning, and factory imaging processes.
Platform Security & Hardening: Implement end-to-end Secure Boot chains and Linux Security Modules (LSMs) such as SELinux or AppArmor to enforce mandatory access controls.
Infrastructure & Tooling: Own the CI/CD pipeline for OS image generation, ensuring that builds are automated, tested, and traceable.

Requirements

OS Construction: Proven ability to build a custom Linux distribution from scratch.
Build System: Experience Yocto/OpenEmbedded, Buildroot, or equivalent professional-grade embedded build environments.
Kernel & Performance Tuning: Experience with PREEMPT_RT, core isolation (isolcpus), and tuning Linux for real-time robotics or industrial control.
Nvidia Ecosystem: Deep familiarity with Nvidia Jetson hardware, including L4T, Jetpack SDK, and flashing utilities.
Resiliency Engineering: Hands-on experience with OverlayFS, partition management, and fail-safe OTA update mechanisms.
Security Engineering: Hands-on experience with LUKS disk encryption, TPM 2.0 integration, and managing PKI (Public Key Infrastructure) for embedded devices.

Qualifications

Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, or a related technical field. 5+ years of experience in Embedded Linux or Systems Engineering. Demonstrated experience shipping and maintaining a custom Linux OS on high-complexity physical hardware.

Skills