Principal Robotic Controls Engineer

The role

You will shape precision pointing and tracking architecture for autonomous directed-energy systems. This involves designing control architecture, developing filters, and validating performance through simulation and hardware testing.

What you will do

• Design control architecture for coarse gimbals and fine steering mirrors
• Develop Kalman, interacting multiple model, and nonlinear filters
• Build line-of-sight stabilization and jitter-rejection methods
• Allocate pointing error budgets and validate precision performance
• Model plants and identify system dynamics using simulation and hardware-in-the-loop
• Analyze stability and robustness and integrate controls with tracking and safety logic
• Deploy control algorithms to embedded targets
• Provide technical review and mentor engineers

Required qualifications

• At least 10 years of experience closing loops on precision pointing, tracking, or stabilization hardware
• PhD-level depth in control theory and estimation
• Proficiency in robust control, including H-infinity, mu-synthesis, and LQG
• Proficiency in optimal estimation such as Kalman variants, IMM, and nonlinear observers
• Experience shipping C or C++ control loops on embedded or RTOS targets
• Experience working with MATLAB/Simulink and Python
• Background in sensor fusion, multi-rate and sampled-data design, real-time hardware-in-the-loop validation, system identification, and structural dynamics
• Ability to serve as the controls technical anchor on a small team

Nice to have

• Directed-energy or high-energy laser experience
• Active security clearance, or ability to obtain one

About the company

clera is a defense technology team developing autonomous directed-energy systems.