Senior Robotics Engineer, Controls

ABOUT THE ROLE Join a small engineering team developing autonomous directed-energy systems in the defense sector. As a senior individual contributor, you will own the precision motion control stack, helping deliver reliable pointing and tracking performance on real hardware. WHAT YOU'LL DO - Architect and tune precision pointing and tracking control loops, including closed-loop sensor-to-actuator control at hundreds of hertz. - Develop state estimation and sensor fusion using IMU, encoder, and vision feedback. - Identify and model gimbal, mount, and actuator dynamics, then compensate for resonance, friction, backlash, and saturation. - Build simulation and hardware-in-the-loop infrastructure to develop and validate controls. - Characterize system performance on hardware and in field tests, and document controls standards and tuning practices. WHAT WE'RE LOOKING FOR - At least 4 years of robotics experience, including hands-on design and tuning of closed-loop controllers on motion hardware. - Strong grounding in classical and state-space controls, including LQR and MPC, plus practical state estimation using Kalman-family or complementary filters. - Experience with system identification, frequency-domain tuning, structural resonance compensation, and closing the simulation-to-hardware gap. - Modern C++ for real-time control, and Python or MATLAB/Simulink for modeling and analysis. - Direct experience with servo drives, brushless motors, encoders, and IMUs, as well as real-time latency and jitter constraints. - Comfort working across mechanical, electrical, and software engineering; gimbal, precision-pointing, tracking, or defense systems experience is relevant. COMPENSATION & BENEFITS Base salary: $180,000 to $200,000 annually. Visa sponsorship is not available. LOCATION On-site in San Francisco, California, United States.