Staff Engineer, Software – Physical AI

Applicants for this position must be currently authorized to work in the United States on a full-time basis. Renesas is unable to sponsor applicants for work visas for this position now or in the future.  This includes anyone on F1/OPT visas. 

Farmington Hills MI - Hybrid

The HPC SoC Business Division is seeking a Staff Engineer Software Physical AI to drive customer and ecosystem adoption of Renesas R-Car SoCs for next-generation robotic and Physical AI platforms.

This role will provide technical leadership for humanoid robots autonomous systems embodied AI and advanced robotic platforms by combining expertise in embedded systems heterogeneous computing AI acceleration robotics software and the mathematical foundations of Physical AI. The successful candidate will work directly with customers ecosystem partners and internal engineering teams to develop reference platforms optimize AI workloads and shape future R-Car products.

Key Responsibilities

• Serve as technical lead for Physical AI humanoid robotics autonomous systems and robotic compute platforms based on Renesas R-Car SoCs.
• Collaborate with robotics and ecosystem partners to develop reference designs proofs of concept demonstrations and reusable customer solutions.
• Support customer programs from architecture definition through platform bring-up software integration debugging optimization validation and production.
• Analyze and optimize AI and robotics workloads including perception sensor fusion localization mapping (SLAM) planning navigation manipulation control and AI inference.
• Lead system-level debugging across Linux ROS2 AI runtimes GPU/NPU accelerators device drivers firmware memory management IPC and heterogeneous multicore systems.
• Optimize workload partitioning across CPU GPU NPU DSP and dedicated accelerators while balancing latency throughput memory bandwidth and power consumption.
• Support GPU compute technologies including Vulkan Vulkan Compute OpenCL OpenGL ES and OpenVX.
• Develop performance models for AI and robotic systems by analyzing compute intensity memory movement data locality accelerator utilization and end-to-end latency.
• Support customer RFIs RFQs architecture reviews design reviews technical workshops and debug engagements.
• Work with global engineering teams to define future requirements for R-Car SoCs AI software tools and robotic reference platforms.

Qualifications :

Required Qualifications

• Applicants for this position must be currently authorized to work in the United States on a full-time basis. Renesas is unable to sponsor applicants for work visas for this position now or in the future.  This includes anyone on F1/OPT visas. 
• BS/MS/PhD in Computer Engineering Electrical Engineering Computer Science Robotics Applied Mathematics or related field.
• 5 years of experience in embedded systems semiconductor application engineering robotics AI autonomous systems or high-performance compute platforms.
• Strong C/C software development and debugging experience.
• Deep understanding of SoC architecture memory subsystems firmware operating systems device drivers middleware and hardware accelerators.
• Extensive experience with Embedded Linux Ubuntu BSPs bootloaders Linux kernel and system-level debugging.
• Strong understanding of heterogeneous compute architectures DMA shared memory IPC memory hierarchy cache behavior and accelerator architectures.
• Hands-on experience with GPU architectures and parallel computing.
•  Experience with Vulkan OpenCL OpenGL ES Vulkan Compute OpenVX or equivalent technologies.
• Experience profiling and optimizing system performance using tracing logging and debugging tools.
• Linear Algebra: vectors matrices tensors transformations projections eigenvalues/eigenvectors matrix decompositions numerical linear algebra.
• Geometry & Robotics Mathematics: coordinate transformations homogeneous transforms rotation matrices quaternions kinematics dynamics trajectory generation.
• Optimization & Estimation: multivariable calculus probability statistics numerical optimization Kalman filtering state estimation nonlinear optimization.
• AI Computing Fundamentals: understanding of how GEMM convolution attention tensor transformations interpolation and other mathematical operators map onto CPU/GPU/NPU hardware.
• Ability to analyze computational complexity memory bandwidth requirements accelerator utilization and data movement characteristics of AI and robotics workloads.
• Strong communication customer-facing and technical leadership skills

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience with Renesas R-Car or comparable high-performance SoCs.
• Strong experience with ROS2 and robotics middleware.
• Experience developing humanoid robots autonomous mobile robots robotic manipulators or other Physical AI systems.
• Experience with perception sensor fusion localization SLAM navigation planning and control algorithms.
• Experience with AI frameworks such as PyTorch TensorFlow ONNX and OpenCV.
• Experience optimizing AI models for embedded deployment.
• Experience with robotic simulation environments such as Isaac Sim Gazebo MuJoCo or equivalent.
• Experience with Physical AI foundation models reinforcement learning vision-language-action models or embodied AI systems.
• Experience integrating sensors including cameras LiDAR radar IMUs encoders and force/torque sensors.
• Experience with PowerVR or comparable embedded GPU architectures.

Additional Information :

Renesas is an embedded semiconductor solution provider driven by its Purpose To Make Our Lives Easier. With a global team of over 21000 engineers and problem solvers in more than 30 countries we offer the opportunity to work on worldleading technology for Automotive Industrial Infrastructure and IoT shaping a safer healthier greener and smarter future.

At Renesas TAGIE is our culture grounded in being Transparent Agile Global Innovative and Entrepreneurial. It shapes how we work grow and deliver on our purpose together. This collaborative spirit and mindset drive our semiconductor technology to transform industries and impact millions of lives.

We believe in rewarding our employees with a competitive benefits package alongside their salary. More information will be provided during the hiring process.

Are you ready to join our team and shape the future with us

Renesas Electronics is an equal opportunity and affirmative action employer committed to supporting diversity and fostering a work environment free of discrimination on the basis of sex race religion national origin gender gender identity gender expression age sexual orientation military status veteran status or any other basis protected by law. For more information please read our Diversity & Inclusion Statement.

Renesas Electronics deals with dual-use technology that is subject to U.S. export controls regulations. Under these regulations it may be necessary for Renesas to obtain U.S. government export license prior to release of technology to certain persons. The decision whether or not to file or pursue an export license application is at the sole discretion of Renesas.

Remote Work :

No

Employment Type :

Full-time