Senior Controls Engineer
Deft AI•San Francisco, CA
•Onsite
About The Position
Our robots operate in real production environments where control reliability isn't optional — it's the difference between a deployed system and a demo. As a Senior Controls Engineer, you'll work directly on the low-level control and motion systems that make our bimanual wheeled robots safe, precise, and production-ready. This is not a paper-reading internship. You'll ship code that runs on real hardware, debug edge cases that only surface on the factory floor, and see the direct impact of your work on deployed robot performance.
Requirements
- Strong fundamentals in classical control theory (PID, impedance/admittance control, state estimation) with hands-on experience implementing controllers on physical hardware.
- Proficiency in Python and C/C++ for real-time embedded or robotic applications.
- Hands-on experience with inverse kinematics solvers and simulation environments (PyBullet, MuJoCo, Drake, or similar), including practical familiarity with IK libraries or custom Jacobian-based implementations.
- Experience with rigid-body kinematics, coordinate frame transformations (homogeneous transforms, SE(3), quaternion representations)
- Experience with sensor fusion techniques (Kalman filtering, complementary filters) using IMU, encoders, or similar proprioceptive sensors.
Nice To Haves
- Prior experience with ROS/ROS2, CAN bus communication, or motor control interfaces.
- Familiarity with trajectory smoothing and interpolation methods (spline-based planning, Ruckig, or similar time-optimal trajectory libraries).
- Experience with wheeled or mobile robot platforms, including human in the loop data collection framework
Responsibilities
- Design and implement real-time supervisory control systems for smooth handoff between autonomous and teleoperated modes, including trajectory blending and forward-consistent motion during transitions.
- Improve inverse kinematics solvers for multi-arm manipulation — resolving singularities, boundary failures, and ensuring robust solutions across the full reachable workspace.
- Develop sensor fusion pipelines (IMU, odometry, vision) for precise mobile base localization and orientation control under tight angular tolerances.
- Integrate new actuators for bimanual arm systems — including motor driver communication, torque/position/velocity control mode configuration, gain tuning, and safety limit implementation
Benefits
- Medical, dental & vision plans ($0 payroll deduction)
- Daily meals stipend.
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What This Job Offers
Job Type
Full-time
Career Level
Senior
Education Level
No Education Listed
