Electrical Engineer, Driver Design & Motor Control

Foundation•San Francisco, CA

9d•$180,000 - $300,000

About The Position

We are taking on one of the hardest unsolved problems in robotics: building hands that actually work like human hands. As a Senior Electrical Engineer on our Humanoid Hands Team you will design the motor driver circuits, embedded systems, and custom PCBs that bring true dexterous manipulation to life in the real world. Humanoid or robotic hand experience is not required, what matters is strong motor driver and embedded systems expertise and a passion for building hardware that has never existed before.

Requirements

Strong motor driver and embedded systems background is what matters most.
Proven track record designing embedded systems (MCUs, DSPs, or FPGAs) in compact, high-reliability environments.
Hands-on experience designing motor driver and motor controller circuits including gate drivers, H-bridge topologies, FOC controllers, and power stage design for BLDC, brushed, or stepper motors.
Experience with sensor integration (IMUs, force/tactile, encoders), motor control, and power electronics.
Strong debugging skills with oscilloscopes, logic analyzers, and JTAG tools.
Proficiency in Altium Designer, KiCad, or Cadence.
Solid understanding of signal integrity, thermal management, and power distribution for compact electronics.
Bachelor's or Master's in Electrical Engineering or related field.

Nice To Haves

Robotics or humanoid experience is a plus but absolutely not required — we welcome engineers from aerospace, medical devices, automotive, defense, or any field where you have designed high-reliability compact hardware.
Familiarity with firmware interactions and embedded C/C++ is a plus.
Exposure to safety standards (IEC, ISO) and EMI/EMC compliance testing.

Responsibilities

Own end-to-end PCB design for robotic hand controllers including schematics, layout, and BOM selection.
Design and develop motor driver and motor controller circuits for BLDC, brushed, and stepper motors used in hand joints and tendon-driven systems.
Evaluate and integrate motor driver ICs and power stages including gate drivers, H-bridges, and FOC controllers.
Develop custom force and tactile sensors with aggressive size and reliability requirements.
Design embedded systems and mixed-signal circuits (MCUs, FPGAs, sensors, power, communications).
Perform board bring-up, validation, and debugging.
Guide junior engineers and review schematic and layout work.
Interface with firmware engineers to define board-level APIs and support hardware abstraction.
Drive DFM, DFT, and EMC improvements as designs move to production.