Freelance Embedded System Software Engineer Jobs in Manchester, NH

What we need

We are looking for a Senior Functional Safety Software Engineer to join our Functional Safety Software team within our Software Engineering organization. Your job will be to design, develop, andmaintainsafety-critical software applications that support advanced warehouse automation systems. You will work across embedded software, real-time systems, hardware interfaces, and functional safety disciplines to help ensure reliable and compliant operation of complex robotic platforms.

This is a hands-on engineering role focused on modern C++ development in QNX and POSIX-based environments. You will contribute to software architecture, hardware integration, test infrastructure, and functional safety activities while partnering closely with systems engineering, hardware, and cross-functional development teams.

What we do

The Functional Safety Software team is part of the Software Engineering organization, whichis responsible forbuildingthe intelligentsoftware platforms that powerSymbotic'sadvanced automation systems. The team develops safety-critical software applications that coordinate and enforce the safe operation of robotics, automation hardware, and warehouse control systems across large-scale deployments.

Our development culture emphasizes thoughtful engineering, maintainable systems, technical rigor, and collaborative problem solving. We value engineers who take ownership, communicate clearly, and contribute to improving both the software and the development processes around it.

Whatyou'lldo

• Design and implement safety-relevant software components in modern C++17 running on QNX and POSIX-based systems.

• Develop software services thatinterface directly withhardware peripherals, low-level communication protocols, and vendor SDKs.

• Build andmaintainPython-based hardware-in-the-loop (HIL) test automation infrastructure.

• Participate in functional safety activities including hazard analysis, DFMEA, FMEDA, fault tree analysis, and safety reviews.

• Collaborate with systems engineers, hardware engineers, project managers, and cross-functional development teams to achieve system safety goals.

• Improve build systems, CI pipelines, developer tooling, and software test infrastructure used across the engineering organization.

• Support internal audits, third-party safety assessments, and functional safety compliance efforts throughout the product lifecycle.

• Travel up to 25% as needed to support integration, testing, and cross-functional collaboration.

Whatyou'llneed

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Computer Science, or related engineering discipline;Master'sdegree preferred.

• Minimum of 5 years of experience developing systems-level or embedded software in complex technical environments.

• Strong experience with C++, C, Rust, Go, or similar systems programming languages, with interest in modern C++ development.

• Strong understanding of POSIXuserspaceconcepts including threads, sockets, signals, IPC, and shared memory.

• Experience working close to hardware, including interpreting datasheets, register maps, and hardware interface documentation.

• Professional experience developing Python tooling or automation infrastructure, particularly for testing or integration workflows.

• Familiarity with software development best practices including version control, code reviews, CI/CD, documentation, and maintainable software architecture.

• Strong written and verbal communication skills with the ability to work effectively across matrixed engineering organizations.

Preferred qualifications

• Experience with QNX or other real-time operating systems (RTOS).

• Exposure to functional safety standards such as IEC 61508.

• TUV Functional Safety Engineer (FSE) certification.

• Experience with hardware-in-the-loop (HIL) testing and automation.

• Experience integrating vendor SDKs or working with binary communication protocols.

• Contributions to open-source software projects or experience working in open-core development environments.