Senior Robotics Controls Engineer (Robotics)

Location: San Francisco office; onsite five days a week. Periodic travel to customer sites of up to 15% is required, and schedule flexibility may be needed during deployments.

Base salary: $176,000–$240,000 per year, plus potential equity awards.

Company

Builds Physical AI and autonomous robotic systems for food, mining, transport, and other real-world industrial environments.

What you will do

• Design, implement, and tune control algorithms for autonomous vehicle systems.
• Build localization, state estimation, longitudinal control, lateral control, and navigation systems.
• Develop sensor-fusion pipelines using multiple sensor modalities.
• Analyze system performance through simulation, log replay, and field testing on heavy haul trucks.
• Debug control issues using logged data and identify root causes.
• Collaborate with perception, planning, and hardware teams to integrate reliable production control systems.

Requirements

• BS, MS, or PhD in Robotics, Mechanical Engineering, Aerospace Engineering, Electrical Engineering, or a related field.
• 3+ years of professional software development experience, excluding internships.
• Strong knowledge of classical control theory, including PID, lead/lag compensation, and stability analysis.
• Experience with state estimation, Kalman filters, EKF/UKF, vehicle dynamics and kinematics, MPC, path-following algorithms, signal processing, and filter design.
• Proficiency in Python, NumPy, and SciPy; ability to read and debug real-time control code and write production-quality software.
• Experience deploying localization and control algorithms on real-world systems, with knowledge of CAN bus, vehicle interfaces, ROS or similar robotics middleware, and heavy equipment.

Nice to have

• Familiarity with modern machine learning techniques for control problems.
• Experience with C++ for optimization-critical code paths.

Culture & Benefits

• Work on autonomous systems designed for large-scale physical-world impact.
• Medical, dental, vision, disability, and life insurance.
• Flexible Spending Account and Health Savings Account options.
• 401(k), equity, sick time, unlimited flexible time off, and paid holidays.
• Paid parental leave and pre-tax commuter benefits.
• Team lunches at the SoMa office on Tuesdays and Thursdays.