Staff Controls Software Engineer (Robotics)

TL;DR

Staff Controls Software Engineer (Robotics): Leading the development and industrialization of production-grade control software for hirify.global robotic systems with an accent on real-time architectures and deterministic operation. Focus on translating research prototypes into scalable systems, implementing high-performance control loops, and ensuring safety-critical reliability.

Location: On-site in London, UK

Company

hirify.global is building the world's most capable, commercially-scalable, and safe hirify.global robots, currently deploying the HMND-01 Alpha platform in industrial pilots.

What you will do

• Design and maintain modular, real-time control architectures supporting locomotion, manipulation, and teleoperation.
• Implement high-performance control loops and middleware interfaces to ensure deterministic and safe operation.
• Industrialize algorithms by translating research prototypes into scalable, maintainable, and testable production software.
• Develop automated testing frameworks, including simulation, hardware-in-the-loop, and performance validation.
• Implement software-based fail-safes, watchdogs, and redundancy mechanisms for safety-critical paths.
• Mentor engineers on control software best practices and guide the long-term architecture roadmap.

Requirements

• B.S., M.S., or Ph.D. in Robotics, Control, Computer Engineering, or a related field.
• 10+ years of experience developing robotics control software for real-time systems.
• Proven expertise in modern C++ and Python for implementation and automation.
• Strong background in control theory, robot kinematics, and dynamics.
• Track record of shipping production-quality robotics software rather than research prototypes.
• Solid understanding of Git, CI/CD pipelines, and automated testing.

Nice to have

• Experience with ROS2, real-time Linux, or RTOS environments.
• Familiarity with Eigen, Pinocchio, Placo, PyTorch, or MuJoCo.
• Background in whole-body control, actuator coordination, or force control.
• Experience with learning-based control methods such as Reinforcement Learning (RL) or imitation learning.

Culture & Benefits

• 23 days of annual leave, 15 days of paid sick leave, and paid company holidays.
• Fully funded private healthcare for UK employees.
• Equity ownership in the company.
• Pension scheme with a total 8% contribution.
• Free daily breakfast, catered lunch, and snacks provided in-office.
• Opportunity to collaborate with top-tier experts in AI and robotics.