About Human Archive

Human Archive is a robotics data lab founded by Stanford and UC Berkeley dropouts. We work alongside frontier robotics labs and foundation model research groups to collect large-scale, quality, diverse, multimodal datasets of humans performing everyday tasks across household and industrial environments.

We are lean, technical, and operate at extreme speed, taking on unglamorous and conventionally impossible problems that directly unlock step-function gains in model capability.

The deployment of capable humanoids at scale will permanently redefine human labor. Undesirable physical work will disappear, and human effort will shift toward a new era of abundant creativity. This shift is inevitable, and we are building the infrastructure to accelerate it.

We are assembling the best team to solve the hardest problems in embodied intelligence. We’ve already shipped data to frontier robotics teams. You will own meaningful systems from day one and see your work directly impact model capabilities. This is a once-in-a-generation inflection point. If you want to leave your dent on humanity and reshape physical labor markets forever, join us!

About the Role

We are building a battery-powered wearable hardware platform that integrates distributed sensors, embedded compute, and real-time system control.

This role owns the real-time firmware layer responsible for deterministic sensor acquisition, precise timestamp alignment, system state control, and reliable communication between microcontroller and embedded compute.

You will build and maintain the timing-critical foundation that ensures dataset integrity and long-duration operational stability.

Responsibilities

You will design and maintain firmware for a dedicated microcontroller responsible for aggregating and managing distributed sensors. This includes implementing robust SPI and related peripheral drivers, defining bus architecture, and ensuring stable high-frequency data acquisition under sustained operation.

• You will architect and implement the system timebase and synchronization strategy across multiple sensor domains. This includes guaranteeing consistent timestamp propagation, deterministic event handling, and reliable alignment between sensor data and system-level events.
• You will develop hardware-level control logic for user inputs and system indicators, ensuring interrupt-driven reliability and safe behavior under load.
• You will design boot, shutdown, and fault-recovery mechanisms appropriate for battery-powered systems. This includes watchdog strategies, brownout handling, and corruption prevention during unexpected power events.
• You will implement a deterministic communication boundary between the microcontroller and the embedded Linux compute layer. This includes defining packet structures, buffering strategies, latency expectations, and error handling mechanisms.
• The expectation is that firmware behavior remains stable under long-duration operation without data loss or timing drift.

Required Qualifications

• 3-8 years of embedded firmware development experience.
• Strong proficiency in C or C++ for microcontroller environments.
• Experience with modern MCU platforms such as STM32 or equivalent.
• Deep understanding of SPI, I²C, UART, and interrupt-driven design.
• Experience building timing-sensitive firmware and deterministic data pipelines.
• Hands-on debugging experience using oscilloscopes, logic analyzers, and similar lab tools.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience developing firmware for multi-sensor systems requiring precise synchronization.
• Familiarity with real-time timing constraints in robotics, drones, motion capture, or similar systems.
• Experience working with battery-powered hardware and implementing safe state transitions.
• Background in field-deployable embedded systems.

Application

• Resume (PDF)
• Portfolio or GitHub (if applicable)
• A short description of a timing-critical embedded system you personally designed, implemented, and debugged