Controls Engineer (Robotics)

Location: Palo Alto, United States; on-site

Company

hirify.global develops generalized physical AI and robotic systems for dexterous, adaptive work in real-world industrial environments.

What you will do

• Design, implement, and tune PID, state-space, model-based, and other control algorithms for joints, actuators, and whole-body robot motion.
• Build and maintain high-fidelity dynamic models for simulation, analysis, and controller design.
• Analyze real-world robot data, evaluate controller performance, identify regressions, and drive improvements.
• Implement control algorithms under hard real-time constraints in C/C++ or Rust in collaboration with firmware engineers.
• Collaborate with mechanical and electrical engineers to characterize hardware and connect physical design with software performance.
• Define and execute test plans across the robot's full operating envelope.

Requirements

• M.S. or Ph.D. in controls, robotics, or a related field, or equivalent hands-on experience.
• Experience designing and deploying control systems for physical systems such as robots, actuators, or drones.
• Strong knowledge of classical and modern control theory, including PID, lead-lag, state-space, LQR, and MPC, with familiarity with nonlinear systems.
• Experience building dynamic models and using MATLAB/Simulink, Python, Julia, or equivalent simulation tools.
• Hands-on experience tuning controllers on real hardware and debugging behavior with real data.
• Proficiency in C/C++ or Rust for real-time control implementation, plus the ability to work through ambiguity and understand complete systems.

Nice to have

• Experience with whole-body control, trajectory optimization, or model predictive control for legged or manipulator systems.
• Familiarity with field-oriented control or other firmware-level motor control algorithms.
• Exposure to ISO 26262, IEC 61508, or similar functional safety standards.
• Experience with ROS2 or similar robotics middleware.

Culture & Benefits

• Hands-on work with physical robots in industrial environments.
• Ownership of difficult robotics and control problems from low-level actuation to full-body motion.
• Close collaboration across software, firmware, mechanical, and electrical engineering.
• Fast-paced environment emphasizing engineering curiosity and end-to-end system understanding.