Sr. Robotic Engineer, Controls

The role

You will own the precision motion stack, including the architecture and tuning of precision pointing and tracking control loops. You will work on state estimation, system identification, and closed loop integration for directed energy systems.

What you will do

• Architecture and tuning of the precision pointing and tracking control loops
• Closed loop tracking from sensor input through actuator command at hundreds of Hz
• State estimation across IMU, encoder, and vision based feedback
• System identification and modeling of the gimbal, mount, and actuator dynamics
• Actuator tuning, gain scheduling, and compensation for nonlinearities
• Resonance characterization, notch filtering, and structural compensation
• Simulation infrastructure for controls development
• Hardware-in-the-loop test infrastructure for controls validation
• Field characterization of the system against real targets at the range
• Author controls documentation and tuning standards

Required qualifications

• 4+ years of experience in robotics
• Strong knowledge of classical controls, state space, LQR, MPC
• Proven simulation experience and a track record of managing the sim-to-real gap on actual hardware
• Modern C++ for real time control implementation
• Python or MATLAB/Simulink for modeling, system ID, and analysis
• State estimation in practice (Kalman, EKF, UKF, complementary filters)
• System identification and frequency domain tuning
• Direct experience with motion control hardware — servo drives, brushless motors, encoders, IMUs
• Understanding of latency, jitter, and how they kill control loop performance
• MS in Mechanical Engineering, Aerospace Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Robotics, or related field, or BS with strong hands-on robotics experience, or PhD with a real shipping record

Nice to have

• Advanced MPC — nonlinear MPC, robust MPC, or real-time NMPC on resource constrained hardware
• Gimbal, beam director, or precision pointing system experience
• Aerospace, defense, or directed energy controls background
• Adaptive or robust control implementation in production
• Vision-in-the-loop control (visual servoing, image-based tracking)
• Hardware-in-the-loop simulation experience
• High bandwidth sensor pipelines (cameras, radar, IMUs at high rate)
• Prior work on a system that had to hit a moving target

Benefits

• Competitive salary + equity
• United Health Care medical, dental, and vision coverage
• Flexible 18 days PTO + 5 sick days
• Travel to field test events and range days
• Covered daily lunches and office snacks + drinks
• E-bike / scooter stipend (up to $500)
• Direct access to leadership and real ownership over your work

Before you apply

• Requires access to export-controlled information or items that require U.S. Person status (U.S. citizens, legal permanent residents, or certain protected classes of asylees and refugees)

About the company

Aurelius Systems is a VC backed defense tech startup building autonomous, edge deployed directed energy systems for counter-UAS. They build laser weapons to shoot down drones.