Motor Control Firmware Engineer

Skip • San Francisco, CA

6d • Hybrid

About The Position

Skip is seeking a highly motivated and adaptable individual to explore the challenges of building a new generation of wearable robots for everyday life. This mechatronics systems engineer will be primarily responsible for the design, development, testing, and validation of our powertrain, including motor control for novel actuators and complex battery management. The team has just finished an “EVT” build, resulting in functional prototypes that require testing, improvement, and optimization with a whole-system approach. As part of a 22-person team of senior engineers and product leaders, this role will start as an individual contributor with leadership for critical systems and directing work for others contributing to the system, such as the test engineer and gearbox designer.

Requirements

• 5+ years’ experience working in robotics or mechatronics.
• Extensive experience controlling PMSM, including Ti and STM chipsets.
• Experience with design for systems at scale, with a focus on testing and validation.
• Demonstrable expertise in C/C++ for high performance applications.
• Expertise with Linux, command-line tools, Python scripting.
• Strong experience developing real-time firmware for multi-sensor systems.
• Knowledge of low-level hardware and OS internals at a kernel level.
• Attention to detail, even in the middle of overly-long lists.
• Experience with troubleshooting tools (JTAG, SWD, oscilloscopes, logic analyzers).
• Ability to work at the Skip Bay Area office >3 days/week.
• Sense of humour, tolerant of Aussie & Canadian spelling.

Nice To Haves

• Experience with powered consumer electronics (e.g., drones, robot vacuums).
• Experience in start-up environments and using AI coding tools to leverage your skills for broader impact.
• Personal motivation to improve human movement.

Responsibilities

• Understand every element of our mechatronics system and be the go-to person for troubleshooting.
• Guide design and development decisions for future iterations of the product and future systems, including battery and motor specifications, motor control chip selection, and firmware requirements.
• Own the testing protocol to validate performance of the mechatronics at volumes and standards relevant to consumer products, and work with the Test Engineer to execute.
• Precisely control a range of actuators including off-the-shelf BLDCs, custom PMSM and axial flux motors, cycloid gearboxes, and series elastic actuators, including writing firmware for our motor control chip (currently c2000; but likely to change over time).
• Characterize and model our actuators for open-loop and closed-loop torque control.
• Create thermal models and evaluate the thermal limits of the actuator.
• Own the process of productizing our novel actuation systems as standalone products and components of a broader platform.
• Wear prototypes several hours a week to participate in data collection, on-body testing, and provide feedback.
• Bring joy to the team, participate in embarrassing team events, and tolerate KZ’s terrible music.

Benefits

• Equal opportunity employer.
• Hiring decisions based on need and competence.
• No discrimination based on race, religion, color, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, age, marital status, veteran status, disability status, or any other legally protected status.
• Offers of employment conditional on candidates’ ability to provide satisfactory proof of eligibility to maintain full-time employment in the United States.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Senior
• Education Level: No Education Listed