Robotics Controls Engineer (Robotics)

Location: San Francisco, CA; onsite five days a week. Periodic travel to customer sites of up to 15% is required, with some schedule flexibility during deployments.

Salary: $119,000–$161,000 per year, plus potential equity awards.

Company

Atoms builds Physical AI and autonomous robots for food, mining, transport, and other real-world industrial environments.

What you will do

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

Requirements

• BS, MS, or PhD in Robotics, Mechanical Engineering, Aerospace Engineering, Electrical Engineering, or a related field.
• At least 2 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, kinematics, MPC, path-following algorithms, signal processing, and system identification.
• Proficiency in Python and NumPy/SciPy, with the ability to read and debug real-time control code.
• Experience deploying localization and control algorithms on real-world systems, plus knowledge of CAN bus, vehicle interfaces, and ROS or similar robotics middleware.

Nice to have

• Experience with heavy equipment or off-highway vehicles.
• Familiarity with modern machine learning techniques for control problems.
• Experience with NVIDIA Jetson, GPS/RTK, IMUs, and field testing on haul trucks.

Culture & Benefits

• Medical, dental, vision, disability, and life insurance.
• Flexible Spending Account and Health Savings Account options.
• 401(k), equity, paid parental leave, sick time, unlimited flexible time off, and paid holidays.
• Pre-tax commuter benefit plan and team lunches at the SoMa office twice a week.
• Work focused on deploying automation and robotics into real-world industrial environments.