Senior Robotics Engineer, Controls

ABOUT THE ROLE Join a small defense technology team building autonomous directed-energy systems. As a senior individual contributor, you will own the precision motion controls stack, from system modeling and state estimation through real-time implementation and field validation. WHAT YOU'LL DO - Architect and tune precision pointing and tracking control loops for closed-loop operation at hundreds of hertz. - Integrate sensor inputs and actuator commands, using state estimation to fuse IMU, encoder, and vision feedback. - Identify and model gimbal, mount, and actuator dynamics, then tune actuators and compensate for nonlinearities such as backlash, friction, and saturation. - Characterize structural resonances and develop filtering and compensation approaches. - Build simulation and hardware-in-the-loop infrastructure to validate controls and reduce the sim-to-real gap. - Conduct field characterization, document control designs, and establish tuning standards. WHAT WE'RE LOOKING FOR - At least 4 years of robotics experience, including hands-on design and tuning of closed-loop controllers on physical 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, and structural resonance characterization. - Modern C++ for real-time control, and Python or MATLAB/Simulink for modeling and analysis. - Experience with servo drives, brushless motors, encoders, and IMUs, and an understanding of latency and jitter in real-time systems. - Comfort working across mechanical, electrical, and software engineering, and validating controls on actual hardware. - Experience with gimbals, precision pointing, moving platforms, or target tracking is useful. COMPENSATION & BENEFITS Base salary: $180,000 to $200,000 annually. Visa sponsorship is not available. LOCATION On-site in San Francisco, California, with range days.