--- title: 'Research Engineer at Real-Time Innovations' canonical: 'https://feeny.ai/job/research-engineer-real-time-innovations-sunnyvale-6kpq23205ns6' type: 'job' last_seen: '2026-09-09' --- # Research Engineer at Real-Time Innovations - **Company:** Real-Time Innovations - **Location:** Sunnyvale, CA - **Posted:** 2026-03-23 - **Last confirmed live:** 2026-09-09 - **Apply:** https://job-boards.greenhouse.io/rti/jobs/7744077 ## Job description The smart-planet promise is everywhere—from Robotaxi fleets and digital operating rooms to smart farms and dark factories—and Real-Time Innovations (RTI) is the core nervous system making it a reality. As the creators of the world’s number one software framework for smart machines and real-time systems, our software runs the continent’s largest power plants, manages NASA’s launch control, underlies Canada’s air traffic control, and connects perception to control in over 300 autonomous vehicle designs. We are a mid-sized company with an outsized impact, leading the transition to Physical AI. To usher in this new intelligent world, we are building an edge-to-cloud physical data streaming platform capable of low-level machine control, AI-driven smart operation, modern agentic coding, and seamless cloud orchestration. To help drive this mission, we are looking for a Research Engineer to tackle the industry's toughest challenges, including enabling AI coding for distributed systems, delivering determinism and timing control, designing software-defined architectures, and ensuring system-wide coherence. This role is an unparalleled opportunity to join our truly unique research team. RTI Research is highly regarded; our excellent record helps us win millions of dollars in funding per year. Unlike academia or other corporate research departments, RTI's team works closely with product development and field teams delivering real-world applications. Like other top teams, we are creative, we take risks, we drive innovation, and we communicate openly. Unlike other top teams, our product and customers drive our results into real application. If you like to take creative risks and drive innovation, knowing your cutting-edge work will actively power the future of smart distributed systems, this role is for you. ✨ What You’ll Do / Responsibilities You will work with a team of experts researching emerging technologies, coming up with novel solutions for the problems posed by our research sponsors, exploring new concepts for products, prototyping ideas, and leading small teams to develop and to enhance advanced features related to RTI’s secure real-time connectivity platform, Connext. This is an individual contributor role. Duties will include: - Innovate new solutions that will form the foundation of secure, adaptable, and fast distributed systems - Work with the business-development team to define research areas of interest and define interesting research proposal topics - Compose research proposals and report progress to research sponsors - Execute and lead research contracts to push our technology forward - Serve as Principal Investigator and/or Staff Member on externally-funded research contracts - Actively interface with research project sponsors, customers, research partners, and prospects - Develop expertise in emerging technology and share your insights across RTI - Communicate technical innovations through papers and presentations - Support the transition of promising technical innovations to product including customer trials, coordinating with product management, and working closely with the engineering team to design, develop, test and support this transition 🎯 What We’re Looking For / Requirements - Ph.D. degree in Computer Science, Robotics, Electrical Engineering or related field. Appropriate research expertise includes electromechanical, intelligent or autonomous systems, distributed systems, physical agentic AI, or computer networking. - An experimental thesis or real-world experience with physical applications or distributed systems research. - Excellent written communications skills, and evidence of research publications. Experience writing and winning proposals, and research project management. - Solid programming skills and experience with AI-assisted software development. - Ability to work successfully / actively engage with a highly distributed team. - US Person requirement *Due to applicable laws, government regulations and contract specifications, we are required to fill this position only with an individual who qualifies as a "U.S. Person." Don’t meet every single requirement? At RTI, we are dedicated to building a fair and inclusive workplace so if you’re excited about this role but your past experience doesn’t perfectly align with all qualifications in the job description, we encourage you to apply anyway! You may be just the right candidate for this or another one of our open roles. Learn more about our commitment to our team, [here](https://www.rti.com/company/diversity)! 🌟 What We Offer You - Flexible working schedule. - Hybrid working + Home Office Stipend to cover the costs of working from home. - Flexible Paid Time Off + “Real Vacation Bonus,” an additional bonus for taking more than 1-week of uninterrupted vacation. - Competitive compensation including annual bonus based on individual and company performance - We recognize employees for their achievements, offer great opportunities for career growth and development, and provide the tools they need to succeed. 💙 How is life at RTI - We have been certified as a Great Place to Work for seven consecutive years both in [Spain](https://greatplacetowork.es/rti/) and the [US](https://www.greatplacetowork.com/certified-company/7012031). In addition, we were listed as one of the[Best Companies for Women to Advance](https://www.rti.com/news/rti-named-parity.orgs-best-companies-for-women-to-advance-list-2021). - We live and work by our[core values](https://www.rti.com/company/about-rti), which emphasize excellence, teamwork, and reaching your potential. Our motto is “[Enjoy the journey,](https://youtu.be/Z2Nw7K2agEE?si=4Ddw5Kqozf5NFOWi)” above all we must enjoy what we do and have fun at work. At RTI, you will work in a positive, supportive, diverse environment with a team that truly cares about you. - We are defined by our “Working as One” culture and truly care about team’s interaction. That is why we plan trips for teams to get together in person, enjoy fun team-building activities and events, and feel more connected. 🌍 What We Do / About RTI Real-Time Innovations (RTI) is the data-streaming company for intelligent distributed systems. RTI Connext® software is the critical nervous system for over 2,000 designs across Aerospace and Defense, MedTech, Automotive, and Robotics. Connext is the only real-time data streaming platform that can both control demanding physical systems and integrate them with cloud applications. RTI helps organizations develop, deploy, and scale intelligence and physical AI from edge to cloud, faster. RTI Runs a Smarter World™. Learn more at [www.rti.com](http://www.rti.com/). Our software runs the largest power plants on the continent, connects perception to control in over 300 autonomous vehicle designs, drives the new generation of medical robotics, coordinates teams of robots, runs in over 2 million cars, manages NASA’s launch control, and underlies Canada’s air traffic control.  RTI is a mid-sized company with outsized impact. What we do matters. We are the best-positioned company in the world to create the future of smart distributed systems. We are building an [edge-to-cloud physical data streaming platform](https://www.rti.com/blog/connext-7.7), capable of low-level machine control, AI-driven smart operation, modern agentic coding, and cloud orchestration. It must connect physical devices together, share data between machines and cloud infrastructure, and enable fast, reliable system development. Our mission is to usher in the new intelligent world. RTI is an equal opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, religion, color, national origin, sex, age status as a protected veteran, or status as a qualified individual with disability. We have a collaborative and inclusive environment where your talent, aptitude, and attitude determine opportunity to grow. Our culture embraces transparency, learning, and fun. We offer an attractive compensation package consisting of competitive salary, benefits, vacation bonuses, and equity participation. The compensation range for this role is 130K - 155K for Sunnyvale, California. The salary range displayed on this job posting reflects a minimum and maximum target. Individual pay is determined by work location and additional factors, including job-related skills, experience, and relevant education or training. Please note that this range reflects the base salary target range only, and does not include bonus, equity, or benefits. For more information about how we collect and use your data, please see our [Privacy Notice for US Job Applicants and Employees](https://docs.google.com/document/d/1hP7XWYY2N_65GNDjbHT33CcsdyLgc47_yEBJKJJyUwM/edit). https://twitter.com/rti_software https://www.facebook.com/RTISoftware/ https://www.linkedin.com/company/23618/admin/ https://www.instagram.com/rti_software/ ## About Real-Time Innovations ## Company Overview - **One-liner**: Real-Time Innovations (RTI) provides the leading real-time data streaming platform for intelligent distributed systems, enabling autonomous and mission-critical applications across defense, automotive, medical, and industrial sectors. - **Entity Type**: Private (privately held, headquartered in Silicon Valley) - **Headquarters**: Sunnyvale, California, United States - **Founded**: Not publicly available - **Founders**: Not publicly available ## Core Business - Primary industry: Infrastructure software for real-time data streaming and intelligent distributed systems; compliant with the Data Distribution Service (DDS®) standard. - Target customers: B2B, Enterprise, Defense, Automotive, Medical Devices, Industrial, Aerospace, Government (e.g., NASA, Canada’s air traffic control). - Mission: “To run a smarter world” – helping customers transform entire industries by unleashing the value of distributed real-time information. ## Products & Services - **RTI Connext® Product Suite**: A real-time data streaming platform with AI-powered capabilities, built on a decentralized architecture that reduces latency and eliminates single points of failure. Includes: - **Connext Professional**: Full-featured platform for production systems. - **Connext Drive**: Optimized for software-defined vehicles (ISO 26262). - **Connext Cert**: Safety-certified for DO-178C and ISO 26262 requirements. - **Connext Micro**: For resource-constrained and FACE® conformant systems. - **Connext TSS**: Time-sensitive networking for deterministic data delivery. - **RTI Professional Services**: Custom integration, training, and support for deploying distributed systems. ## Market Standing - **Valuation/Market Cap**: Not disclosed (private company) - **Key Metric**: Not publicly available (revenue not disclosed; total funding not disclosed) - **Notable Investors/Partners**: Not publicly available - **Growth Signals**: - Over 2,000 designs worldwide. - Software used in over 500 major defense programs, 2+ million vehicles, and 50% of the top 10 medical device companies. - Controls North America’s largest power plants; underlies Canada’s air traffic control and NASA’s launch control systems. - Recognized by Great Place To Work® with 93% of employees rating it a great place to work (2025). - Listed on Fortune Best Workplaces in the Bay Area™ (2022, 2024, 2025, 2026) and Fortune Best Workplaces in Technology™ (2024). ## Competitive Advantages - **Market leadership in DDS**: RTI is the leading vendor of products compliant with the DDS standard, a proven foundation for autonomous and mission-critical systems. - **Decentralized, zero-broker architecture**: Lower latency, higher throughput, and no single point of failure compared to broker-based solutions like MQTT and Kafka. - **Safety certification**: Connext Cert is certified for DO-178C (aviation) and ISO 26262 (automotive), enabling deployment in the most demanding environments. - **Proven at scale**: Deployed in over 2,000 designs across defense, automotive, medical, industrial, and aerospace – including NASA launch control and Canada’s air traffic control. ## Strategic Focus - Accelerating the transition to **autonomous systems**, **physical AI**, and **software-defined architectures** (especially in automotive and medical robotics). - Expanding AI-powered capabilities within the Connext platform to simplify development and integration of intelligent distributed systems. - Strengthening edge-to-cloud data streaming and support for unreliable networks. - Continued investment in safety-certified and FACE® conformant product lines. ## Why Work Here - **Culture**: 91% of employees say it’s a great place to work (internal survey) vs. 57% at a typical US company. Rated 4.9/5 on Glassdoor. - **Work flexibility**: Fully remote option in most positions; objective-based work with flexible scheduling. - **Benefits**: Strong work-life integration, career development & training, equity participation, vacation bonus, and a “magical internship” program. - **Values-driven**: Emphasis on diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging; pay equity analytics; performance-based talent management; manager training (RMC program). - **Recognition**: Great Place To Work® certified (2025); Fortune Best Workplaces in the Bay Area™ (2026) and Technology™ (2024). ## Sources 1. [RTI Careers](https://www.rti.com/company/careers) 2. [About RTI](https://www.rti.com/company/about-rti) 3. [RTI Homepage](https://www.rti.com/en/) 4. [RTI Welcoming Workplace](https://www.rti.com/company/workplace) 5. [Great Place To Work – RTI](https://www.greatplacetowork.com/en/certified-company/7012031) ## Other roles at Real-Time Innovations - [Sales Director, Aerospace & Defense](https://feeny.ai/job/sales-director-aerospace-defense-real-time-innovations-united-states-dtd5jrjt7jf9) — United States - [Field Application Engineer](https://feeny.ai/job/field-application-engineer-real-time-innovations-boston-wvtq11p1ktf0) — Boston, MA - [Senior Account Manager, Aerospace & Defense](https://feeny.ai/job/senior-account-manager-aerospace-defense-real-time-innovations-united-states-wmg1zmk6ex83) — United States - [Senior Consulting Engineer](https://feeny.ai/job/senior-consulting-engineer-real-time-innovations-germany-b9dc1m8sra9k) — Germany - [Senior Product Manager (Aerospace & Defense)](https://feeny.ai/job/senior-product-manager-aerospace-defense-real-time-innovations-sunnyvale-ceg6yyyvn567) — Sunnyvale, CA - [Performance Engineer](https://feeny.ai/job/performance-engineer-real-time-innovations-granada-ns5qbb3xsdve) — Granada - [Senior Product Manager (Aerospace & Defense)](https://feeny.ai/job/senior-product-manager-aerospace-defense-real-time-innovations-washington-1q55mn42rp3x) — Washington, DC - [Customer Success Manager - UK](https://feeny.ai/job/customer-success-manager-uk-real-time-innovations-united-kingdom-y63tmpdm1zhy) — United Kingdom - [Sr. Account Manager - Commercial Markets](https://feeny.ai/job/sr-account-manager-commercial-markets-real-time-innovations-germany-ptzh64yfna3h) — Germany - [Field Application Engineer](https://feeny.ai/job/field-application-engineer-real-time-innovations-germany-b4p832tmwx57) — Germany