We're looking for a hands-on Embedded Controls Engineer to own firmware, plant identification, and closed-loop control for a novel actuator platform targeting humanoid robotics joints. This is not a tuning role on a known plant: you will define the control strategy for an actuator whose physics do not map cleanly to a standard motor-control playbook.
What You'll Do
Firmware: Write and own the full embedded stack — state machine, multi-phase commutation, and fault handling on an ARM Cortex-M or similar MCU.
Plant Characterization: Design and run frequency sweep experiments on live hardware; extract Bode plots, transfer functions, and the limits of existing modeling assumptions.
Control Architecture: Develop the control approach required by the actuator — whether by adapting advanced controls methods or inventing new ones; validate in simulation, then implement and tune on hardware.
Host Interface: Implement controls protocol; mirror the same command set a BLDC motor controller accepts where useful, without forcing the actuator into the wrong abstraction.
System Integration: Own full system integration through Alpha and 1M-cycle endurance soak.
Qualifications
Education: BS, MS, or PhD in Electrical or Mechanical Engineering or equivalent.
Experience: 3+ years in embedded controls, including at least one real system taken from open-loop characterization to stable closed-loop operation on hardware.
Core technical skills:
Embedded C/C++ on ARM Cortex-M — state machines, interrupts, real-time constraints
Control systems: frequency-domain plant ID, transfer function analysis, and strong command of classical and modern control methods
Motor control background (BLDC/PMSM, FOC) — strong plus, especially if you know where the standard framework breaks
Comfort building controls for electromechanical systems that do not come with an accepted architecture, mature model, or datasheet
What we value:
First-principles fluency — form a deep physical model of a new system and turn it into a practical control architecture
Originality and technical courage — able to reject the default approach when the plant demands something different
A builder mindset: bench time, fast failure analysis, iterating toward a real product