Embedded Linux Systems Engineer

Amazon RIVR is a robotics company pioneering Physical AI through real-world doorstep delivery. Founded in 2024 as an ETH Zurich spin-off, RIVR developed wheeled-legged robots designed to operate in complex, unstructured environments such as stairs, gates, doors, and uneven urban terrain. We believe that achieving general physical intelligence requires solving real customer problems in the real world, where robots can learn from rich operational data at scale.

Following our acquisition by Amazon in March 2026, we are continuing this mission with greater reach and speed. By combining custom robot hardware, onboard autonomy, and cloud-based coordination, Amazon RIVR is building the next generation of safe, reliable autonomous robots for last-mile delivery

Job Description

As our Embedded Linux Systems Engineer, you will be the architect of our robot's compute. Your primary mission is to build, maintain, and secure a custom Linux distribution from the ground up. You will move us away from generic desktop-style distributions toward a lean, hardened, and highly optimized OS. This role is highly technical and hands-on, involving everything from low-level bootloaders and kernel drivers to complex networking stacks and OTA (Over-the-Air) update mechanisms. You will ensure our hardware, ranging from custom PCBs to high-end compute modules, works in perfect harmony with the software stack and AI models.

What you’ll be doing

• Design and implement a production-grade Linux distribution from scratch using Yocto/OpenEmbedded.

• Develop and maintain custom Yocto layers, write and patch bitbake recipes, and configure Linux kernels to support specific hardware peripherals.

• Hardware enablement for critical robotics sensors, including GMSL cameras, GPS/GNSS modules, IMUs, and LiDAR.

• Implement and manage robust Over-the-Air (OTA) update solutions to ensure safe and atomic fleet-wide deployments.

• Work closely with hardware engineers to bring up new boards, modify Device Trees, and debug low-level interfaces (I2C, SPI, CAN, UART).

• Profile and optimize the system for boot time, memory footprint, and interrupt latency.

What you must have

• Master’s degree or higher in a relevant field such as Computer Science, Electrical Engineering or Robotics.

• A minimum of two years of industry or research experience.

• Extensive experience building custom Linux distributions. Using Yocto for managing layers and writing BitBake recipes.

• Deep understanding of the Linux kernel, bootloaders, and the Linux driver model.

• Proven track record of integrating sensors and peripherals. Experience with serial, ethernet and camera interfaces.

• Experience generating and maintaining development SDKs.

• Strong proficiency in C++, C, Python and Bash for system-level programming and build automation.

Get some bonus points

• NVIDIA Jetson Experience: Familiarity with Linux for Tegra, the Jetson platform and the meta-tegra layer.

• Experience with specific OTA tools like Mender, RAUC, or custom A/B partitioning schemes.

• Knowledge of Secure Boot, disk encryption (LUKS/dm-crypt), and TPM integration.

• Experience in networking configuration and troubleshooting (IP tables/nftables, systemd-networkd, bonding, and protocol analysis with Wireshark/tcpdump).

• Experience setting up automated build and test pipelines for embedded hardware (e.g., Jenkins, GitLab CI, or Kas).

Amazon RIVR is committed to building a diverse and inclusive team that values every perspective. If you’re passionate about driving innovation in robotics and creating meaningful impact, we encourage you to apply and bring your unique self to our team.   We believe the best work is done when collaborating and therefore require in-person presence in our office locations.