Senior Embedded Linux Engineer
Company: Apptronik
Location: Austin
Posted on: April 3, 2026
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Job Description:
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. JOB SUMMARY At
Apptronik, we are building humanoid robots that require an
operating system as sophisticated and resilient as their hardware.
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.
You will ensure that every cycle of the CPU is optimized for our
control loops and that our fleet remains stable. ESSENTIAL DUTIES
AND RESPONSIBILITIES Custom OS Architecture & Distribution:
Architect and maintain a custom, production-grade Linux
distribution using Yocto, Buildroot, or an equivalent professional
build system. Demonstrate complete ownership of the OS layers,
managing the relationship between the bootloader, kernel, board
support packages (BSPs), and user-space libraries. Develop and
maintain a highly repeatable and well-documented build process that
serves as the single source of truth for all robot compute modules.
Hardware Enablement & Performance Optimization: Perform low-level
kernel configuration and tuning to meet the strict latency
requirements of humanoid robotics. Implement core isolation and
process priority optimization to ensure critical control loops have
deterministic access to resources. Optimize the OS footprint and
resource utilization (CPU, memory, and I/O) to maximize the
efficiency of our Nvidia Jetson (Jetpack) and AMD64 platforms.
Integrate and debug hardware drivers for peripherals, including
Bluetooth (BlueZ), Wi-Fi, and specialized robotics sensors.
Platform Resilience, Provisioning & Updates: Factory &
Provisioning: Architect the workflows for initial device
provisioning, including secure boot initialization, disk
partitioning, and factory imaging processes. OTA Strategy: Own the
end-to-end Over-the-Air (OTA) update architecture (A/B atomic
updates) using frameworks like Mender, RAUC, or SWUpdate. System
Stability: Implement OverlayFS or similar union-mount strategies to
create a resilient, "unbreakable" system that supports read-only
roots and safe factory resets. Platform Security & Hardening
Hardware Root of Trust & Secure Boot: Architect and implement
end-to-end Secure Boot chains (from BootROM to Kernel) using TPM
2.0 or Secure Enclaves to ensure only authenticated firmware and OS
images execute on the robot. System Hardening & Isolation:
Implement Linux Security Modules (LSMs) such as SELinux or AppArmor
to enforce mandatory access controls; utilize cgroups and
namespaces to isolate critical robotics processes from non-critical
telemetry. Cryptographic Infrastructure: Manage the lifecycle of
device identity and cryptographic keys; oversee disk encryption
(dm-crypt/LUKS) Infrastructure & Tooling: Own the CI/CD pipeline
for OS image generation, ensuring that builds are automated,
tested, and traceable. Create and maintain comprehensive
documentation for the platform architecture, build environment, and
flashing procedures. Develop specialized diagnostic tools
(Python/Bash) for system monitoring and field troubleshooting.
SKILLS AND REQUIREMENTS OS Construction: Proven ability to build a
custom Linux distribution from scratch. You must understand how to
manipulate every layer of the rootfs and toolchain. 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. Hardware Interfacing: Experience debugging
hardware protocols (I2C, SPI, UART, USB) and wireless stacks
(Bluetooth/BlueZ). Documentation & Process: A disciplined approach
to documentation and creating repeatable engineering processes.
Preferred (Nice to Have): Experience with "Modern DevOps"
(Containerized build environments, GitLab CI, or automated
hardware-in-the-loop testing). Knowledge of Secure Boot, disk
encryption, and TPM integration. Knowledge of real time operating
systems Programming experience in C++ and Python. EDUCATION and/or
EXPERIENCE 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. *This is a direct hire. Please, no outside
Agency solicitations. Apptronik provides equal employment
opportunities to all employees and applicants for employment and
prohibits discrimination and harassment of any type without regard
to race, color, religion, age, sex, national origin, disability
status, genetics, protected veteran status, sexual orientation,
gender identity or expression, or any other characteristic
protected by federal, state or local laws.
Keywords: Apptronik, Austin , Senior Embedded Linux Engineer, IT / Software / Systems , Austin, Texas
