Staff Software Engineer at Renesas Electronics in San Jose, CALIFORNIA, United States

Job description

• Why This Role Matters
• Renesas AMS is in the middle of a strategic push to become the sensor and signal-chain vendor of choice inside the fastest-growing platforms in robotics, AI infrastructure, and automotive. That strategy lives or dies on whether we can walk into a customer's lab, integrate our silicon onto their compute platform, and prove it works, fast, credibly, and in code the customer's own engineers trust.
• This role is the technical engine behind that proof. You will be the person who takes an inductive position sensor, an impedance-sensing IC, or a configurable mixed-signal device and makes it run on a customer's MCU or SoC, whatever that platform happens to be. This work feeds directly into design win conversations with strategic accounts across robotics, AI infrastructure, and automotive.

Responsibilities

• Own hardware/software bring-up of AMS and sensor ICs on customer-selected compute platforms, with no assumption of a friendly Renesas reference design.
• Write driver-level firmware in C/C++ (I2C, SPI, UART, GPIO, interrupt handling, register-level configuration) directly from datasheets and schematics, often for silicon and platforms outside Renesas's own ecosystem.
• Build application-layer demonstration code proving out specific end-use cases: optical encoder replacement via inductive position sensing, through-barrier impedance sensing, power sequencing, force/torque sensing for robotic end effectors.
• Lead technical integration for flagship joint development programs (e.g., dexterous robotic hands, industrial robotic arms) alongside strategic partners, working against hard trade-show and customer deadlines.
• Debug full signal-chain issues spanning analog front end, digital bus, and host software stack, often live, in a customer's lab.
• Partner directly with FAEs, product marketing, business development, and customer engineering counterparts to scope PoC requirements, define technical success criteria, and hit milestones that feed directly into account strategy.
• Build reusable driver frameworks and reference architectures that scale across engagements rather than one-off, throwaway integrations.
• Represent Renesas technically in front of customer engineering leadership during lab visits and demos.
• Produce clear technical documentation (architecture, register maps, bring-up guides) usable by both internal teams and customer engineers.
• At the Staff level: provide technical mentorship to other engineers on the team and act as the escalation point for the most technically ambiguous or highest-stakes customer integrations.

Requirements

• Bachelor's degree in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, Computer Science, or related field, or equivalent hands-on experience.
• Senior: 7+ years, Staff: 10+ years, of embedded firmware/software development spanning multiple silicon vendors and MCU/SoC ecosystems.
• Strong, demonstrable C/C++ skill at both the driver and application level, not just familiarity.
• Direct experience bringing up analog/mixed-signal ICs and sensors on third-party platforms you didn't design, from datasheet and schematic alone.
• Deep protocol-level command of I2C, SPI, UART, and Ethernet-based interfaces.
• Experience developing in both bare-metal and RTOS environments.
• Comfort operating under ambiguity: incomplete documentation, shifting customer requirements, and hard external deadlines tied to trade shows or executive commitments.
• Strong communication skills; you'll be explaining technical tradeoffs to both engineers and non-technical stakeholders, sometimes in the same meeting.
• Willingness to travel up to 20% for customer lab visits and trade shows.
• Master's degree in a related engineering field.
• Robotics or industrial sensing background: position sensing, force/torque sensing, proximity/impedance sensing.
• Experience with edge AI compute platforms and their SDK/driver ecosystems.
• Exposure to configurable mixed-signal/state-machine-based analog design.
• Prior customer-facing technical role: FAE, solutions architect, or applications engineering.
• Python for test automation, data logging, or tooling alongside embedded C/C++.
• Experience mentoring junior or mid-level engineers.
• Experience working inside a matrixed organization with cross-functional stakeholders across sales, marketing, and engineering.

Skills

Required

• C/C++
• I2C
• SPI
• UART
• GPIO
• Interrupt handling
• Register-level configuration
• Bare-metal development
• RTOS development
• Ethernet-based interfaces
• Debugging
• Technical documentation

Preferred

• Python
• Edge AI compute platforms
• SDK/driver ecosystems
• FAE
• Solutions architect
• Applications engineering

Benefits

• The expected annual pay range for this position is $180,000 - $245,000. This position is also eligible for bonus opportunities. Please note that final offer amount will be dependent on geographic location, applicable experience, and skillset of the candidate.