Controls Engineer - Legged Robotics (Senior, Staff, Lead)

Ghost Robotics Corporation•Philadelphia, PA

19d•Onsite

About The Position

We're a robotics company building autonomous systems that operate in complex, dynamic environments. We're hiring a Controls Engineer to design, implement, and deploy control algorithms for dynamic legged robots operating in the real world. You'll work across dynamics, optimization, state estimation, and real-time software, owning both the algorithmic innovation and the system-level performance on hardware. This role suits engineers who thrive on high-velocity problem solving, deep technical ownership, and hands-on testing and validation. This is one role, open at the Senior, Staff, or Lead level. The responsibilities below reflect the core of the role at every level. The selected candidate will be placed at the level commensurate with the skills, scope, and experience they demonstrate through the interview process, and the offer will align with that level. Senior and Staff are individual-contributor positions. Lead carries the same technical scope plus people-leadership responsibilities, for candidates who want them.

Requirements

Strong foundations in control theory (linear, nonlinear, optimal control), with experience in legged locomotion or other dynamic systems.
Experience with multi-body dynamics, modeling, and simulation (e.g., MuJoCo, Gazebo, Isaac Sim, PyBullet)
Hands-on experience deploying algorithms on physical robotic systems and debugging complex hardware/software interactions
Proficiency in modern C++ (C++17/20) and Python
Experience with Unix/Linux environments and software engineering best practices (version control, CI/CD)
Permanent U.S. residency is required.

Nice To Haves

An advanced degree in Robotics, Mechanical, Electrical, or Aerospace Engineering, or a related field is one path in. Equivalent industry experience is another.
Experience with legged or humanoid robots and real-world locomotion challenges
Background in whole-body control frameworks (operational space control, MPC, and similar)
Familiarity with state estimation methodologies (EKF, factor graphs, UKF)
Experience architecting data analysis pipelines and automated diagnostic systems
Experience with ROS 2 and real-time middleware
A combination of classical control and reinforcement learning applied to robotic systems
Publications or significant open-source contributions in robotics, controls, or estimation
Demonstrated ability to lead technical efforts and mentor engineers

Responsibilities

Design, implement, and validate advanced control architectures (model-based, optimization-based, learning-augmented) for agility and robustness
Develop, maintain, and validate state estimation and sensor fusion pipelines (IMU, joint encoders, contact/force sensing)
Lead gait generation, footstep planning, contact scheduling, and disturbance recovery tuning
Perform rigorous offline and real-time testing in simulation and on hardware
Debug and analyze system performance using logs, visualization tools, hardware experiments, and fleet data
Build automated diagnostics, analysis scripts, and tools to improve robot reliability and field performance
Collaborate with mechanical, perception, embedded, and systems teams to ensure end-to-end performance and robustness
Write clean, maintainable, real-time-safe code in C++ and Python
Contribute to long-term architectural decisions
Owns a defined technical area of the controls stack and delivers independently end to end (Senior)
Mentors less-experienced engineers (Senior)
Drives technical direction and architecture across the team's area (Staff)
Sets engineering standards and multiplies the output of others (Staff)
Demonstrated influence beyond their own deliverables, across teams or an entire controls stack (Staff)
Staff-level technical scope plus people-leadership responsibilities: direct reports, hiring, performance, and team planning (Lead)
Demonstrated ability to grow engineers and run a healthy, productive team (Lead)