---
title: 'Senior Software Engineer, Robotic Applications at Atomic Machines'
canonical: 'https://feeny.ai/job/senior-software-engineer-robotic-applications-atomic-machines-emeryville-or-7kgvbnb3ysjg'
type: 'job'
last_seen: '2026-10-16'
---

# Senior Software Engineer, Robotic Applications at Atomic Machines

- **Company:** Atomic Machines
- **Location:** Emeryville OR Santa Clara, CA
- **Compensation:** $170k–$220k
- **Posted:** 2026-10-02
- **Last confirmed live:** 2026-10-16
- **Apply:** https://job-boards.greenhouse.io/atomicmachines/jobs/4432620009

## Job description

Atomic Machines is building the Matter Compiler™, the first in a new class of AI-native, all-digital manufacturing systems that build working machines directly from code. The Matter Compiler™ is aimed at micro-machines: motors and gears the size of a grain of sand, robots small enough to work inside the body, cooling built directly into the chips that run AI, and the many devices like them that have been waiting on a way to build them. Its first product is PrimeSwitch™, an electromechanical power relay the size of a button battery that carries 150 amps continuous current and opens in 50 microseconds, about a thousand times faster than a conventional contactor. Founded by Jeff Holden — serial entrepreneur, ex-Amazon SVP and Uber’s first Chief Product Officer — the company has raised $250 million to date.

Atomic Machines is based in the San Francisco Bay Area, with offices in Emeryville and Santa Clara.

About The Role:

Our manufacturing system is composed of nodes; each delivers a unit of manufacturing capacity for a process, and there are a dozen or more node types. As a Software Engineer, Robotic Applications, you will bring nodes to life: designing the automation sequences, state machines, and APIs that turn integrated hardware into reliable, repeatable manufacturing capacity. Your deliverable is software, mainly Python, in the application layers of our stack: the APIs that wrap a node to automate manufacturing processes, the orchestration that sequences motion, vision, and process steps for throughput, and the calibration and diagnostic tooling that lets us replicate nodes and keep them healthy.

You will work shoulder to shoulder with mechanical, electrical, and process engineers through bring-up: one week defining machine behavior with a mechanical designer, the next chasing cycle time out of a motion sequence or root-causing a failure that crosses the software/hardware boundary. You can try code on the machine in the morning and land it as a tested, typed package through CI in the afternoon.

What You’ll Do:

- Design and implement machine behavior: automation sequencing, state machines, failure detection and recovery, and the APIs that expose it all.
- Write code that makes unsafe commands impossible rather than merely discouraged: enforce invariants, validate before touching hardware, and leave the machine in a known state on every exit path.
- Ship a simulator or mock with every device, test sequencing, timing, and recovery without the machine, and extend the conformance suite every machine runs in CI.
- Optimize cycle time: instrument sequences, find where time goes, and overlap or restructure motion/vision/process steps to get it back.
- Bring up new hardware with cross-functional teams, and build the calibration, verification, and diagnostic tools that make the next copy of a machine faster to stand up.
- Debug across the stack: from a misbehaving sensor or homing failure up through orchestration logic, using logs, telemetry, and the machine itself.
- Contribute to system reliability through observability that shows a machine degrading before it stops, fault handling, and graceful recovery, so machines run without babysitting.
- Take a turn on the on-call rotation: periodically a one-week shift that includes the weekend (about once every 10 weeks; less frequently as the company grows and eventually transitioning to dedicated support teams).
- Current coverage slots are 6am–2pm or 2pm–10pm, and you will not be expected to work beyond the shift for those days.

What You’ll Need:

- 3+ years developing software for systems that interact with hardware or the physical world (level set by experience and interview performance
- Depth on something you built: at least one system you can take us two layers down into, what you wrote, why that design, what broke, and how you found it.
- Strong programming fundamentals and fluent Python: you will write and debug Python every day, and every coding exercise in our interview is in Python. If your strongest language is something else, you are welcome if you can work in Python live; it does not need to be polished.
- A first-principles mindset: you reason about why a design works, not just how you've seen it done.
- Practical understanding of state machines, sequencing, and failure modes in systems where software drives physical hardware: what is legal from the current state, what must still hold when a step fails halfway, and why an operation that may be retried must be safe to repeat.
- Systematic debugging habits, starting from the symptom and reaching the mechanism, and the collaboration skills to chase problems across the software/electrical/mechanical boundary.
- BS in CS, EE, ME, Mechatronics, Robotics, or equivalent experience.

Bonus Points For:

- Experience bringing up and integrating electromechanical systems (sensors, actuators, motion axes) in production environments.
- Working fluency in a systems language (C++, Rust, Go); our motion stack is C++ and it helps to read it.
- Robotics depth where this job uses it: kinematics, motion planning, vision-based alignment, calibration (hand-eye, kinematic, galvo scan-field), and a track record of landing it in shipped systems.
- Experience with hardware-in-the-loop test design, observability, or simulation and digital-twin validation beyond unit-level mocks.
- Realtime or embedded experience (valuable on adjacent teams; not required here).

The compensation for this position also includes equity and benefits.

Salary Range $170,000—$220,000 USD

Atomic Machines is an equal opportunity employer that values diversity and does not discriminate based on characteristics protected by applicable law. We are committed to an inclusive interview experience, including for individuals with disabilities. To request an accommodation, contact rc@atomicmachines.com. To help our recruiting team manage application volume and respond to candidates more efficiently, Atomic Machines may use AI-assisted tools.

## About Atomic Machines

## Company Overview
- **One-liner**: Atomic Machines is building a new robotic micro-manufacturing platform to create a class of micro-electromechanical (MEMS) devices unattainable with traditional semiconductor-based fabrication.
- **Entity Type**: Private (Series B)
- **Headquarters**: Berkeley, California, USA (with additional offices in Emeryville and Santa Clara, CA) [pitchbook.com](https://pitchbook.com/profiles/company/461907-37)
- **Founded**: 2019 [pitchbook.com](https://pitchbook.com/profiles/company/461907-37)
- **Founders**: Not publicly available

## Core Business
- **Primary industry/industries**: Advanced Manufacturing, Nanotechnology, Robotics, MEMS (Micro-Electromechanical Systems), Machinery (B2B), Semiconductors [pitchbook.com](https://pitchbook.com/profiles/company/461907-37)
- **Target customers**: B2B — technology innovators and manufacturers in the AI data center world and broader tech industry requiring rapid prototyping and large-scale production of micro-devices [atomicmachines.com](https://www.atomicmachines.com/)
- **Mission or purpose statement**: "Redefining humanity’s relationship with matter" — building the machines that make everything, taking digital manufacturing to the extreme [builtin.com](https://builtin.com/company/atomic-machines)

## Products & Services
- **MEMS 2.0 Platform**: A proprietary robotic manufacturing technology stack that breaks traditional paradigms of silicon-fab-based MEMS fabrication, enabling new classes of microdevices with radically shorter development lifecycles [atomicmachines.com](https://www.atomicmachines.com/)
- **First Commercial Device**: A product addressing a critical need in the rapidly evolving AI data center world, currently being commercialized [atomicmachines.com](https://www.atomicmachines.com/join)
- **Microelectromechanical Systems Power Relay**: Patented technology (multiple patents filed globally) for power relay applications [pitchbook.com](https://pitchbook.com/profiles/company/461907-37)

## Market Standing
- **Valuation/Market Cap**: Not publicly disclosed (private company)
- **Key Metric**: Total funding raised — **$144M** across two rounds (Series A in Nov 2022, Series B in Feb 2025) [pitchbook.com](https://pitchbook.com/profiles/company/461907-37)
- **Notable Investors/Partners**: Sozo Ventures, XTX Ventures, Deep Ventures, and individual angel investors (10 total investors) [pitchbook.com](https://pitchbook.com/profiles/company/461907-37)
- **Growth Signals**: Strong product/market fit with a clear go-to-market path; headcount of 134 employees (as of 2026) growing rapidly; well-funded with $75M Series B raised in Feb 2025; active patent portfolio [pitchbook.com](https://pitchbook.com/profiles/company/461907-37) [atomicmachines.com](https://www.atomicmachines.com/join)

## Competitive Advantages
- **Proprietary Technology Stack**: A completely new micro-manufacturing approach that is not based on traditional semiconductor/MEMS fabrication — a fundamental innovation rather than an incremental improvement [atomicmachines.com](https://www.atomicmachines.com/)
- **Extreme Digital Manufacturing**: Enables "unimaginably short product development lifecycles" and rapid prototyping with compelling economics [atomicmachines.com](https://www.atomicmachines.com/join)
- **First-Mover Advantage in MEMS 2.0**: Breaking traditional manufacturing paradigms for a new class of microdevices
- **Patented IP**: Multiple active and pending patents for microelectromechanical systems power relay technology [pitchbook.com](https://pitchbook.com/profiles/company/461907-37)

## Strategic Focus
- **Commercialization**: Scaling the first device targeting the AI data center market [atomicmachines.com](https://www.atomicmachines.com/join)
- **Platform Expansion**: Building the full "matter compiler" — the machines that make everything — from rapid prototyping to large-scale production [atomicmachines.com](https://www.atomicmachines.com/)
- **Talent Aggregation**: Actively hiring across multiple disciplines (AI, software, hardware, manufacturing, IT security, finance) to build a world-class multi-disciplinary team [greenhouse.io](https://job-boards.greenhouse.io/atomicmachines)

## Why Work Here
- **Mission-Driven Work**: A rare opportunity to work on a "world-changing mission" to democratize the power to make physical things — from bits to atoms [atomicmachines.com](https://www.atomicmachines.com/join)
- **Apolitical Maker Culture**: The company explicitly states it is building "an apolitical maker culture of continuous invention, operational excellence and idea meritocracy" with information transparency [atomicmachines.com](https://www.atomicmachines.com/join)
- **Significant Equity**: Employees receive significant equity compensation and are treated as true company owners who benefit financially from overall success [builtin.com](https://builtin.com/company/atomic-machines)
- **Multi-Disciplinary Environment**: Work alongside incredibly talented engineers, scientists, and builders across robotics, MEMS, software, AI, and manufacturing [atomicmachines.com](https://www.atomicmachines.com/join)
- **Work Policy**: In-Office — employees work from physical offices in Emeryville, Santa Clara, or Berkeley, CA [builtin.com](https://builtin.com/company/atomic-machines) [greenhouse.io](https://job-boards.greenhouse.io/atomicmachines)
- **Growth Opportunity**: Join as an early-stage company (founded 2019, still stealth) with strong funding and clear product/market fit — opportunity to help define the company from its early days [builtin.com](https://builtin.com/company/atomic-machines)

## Sources
1. [atomicmachines.com](https://www.atomicmachines.com/)
2. [atomicmachines.com/join](https://www.atomicmachines.com/join)
3. [greenhouse.io](https://job-boards.greenhouse.io/atomicmachines)
4. [pitchbook.com](https://pitchbook.com/profiles/company/461907-37)
5. [builtin.com](https://builtin.com/company/atomic-machines)

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