Controls Engineer

The role

You will design and implement algorithms that make robots behave predictably, smoothly, and safely. You will work on control algorithms, models, real-time loops, and robotic bring-up.

What you will do

• Design and implement control algorithms including PID, LQR, MPC, inverse dynamics, and feedforward controllers
• Create and refine physical and inverse dynamics models for simulation and control design
• Write and optimize runtime control loops, including neural-network-driven control
• Integrate and tune arms, mobile bases, teleop systems, and full-body platforms
• Diagnose and resolve hardware, software, and runtime issues using first-principles reasoning
• Work with embedded systems, drivers, and communication protocols
• Work with researchers, platform engineers, and operators
• Prototype configurations, collect structured datasets, and iterate with researchers

Required qualifications

• Deep understanding of model-based control algorithms and inverse dynamics
• Ability to validate control approaches in simulation and translate them to real hardware
• Proficiency in Python and C++, including firmware-adjacent development
• Skill in writing and tuning real-time control loops
• Hands-on capability to debug electromechanical systems end-to-end
• Familiarity with embedded communication protocols (CAN, SPI, I2C, Ethernet)
• Clear communication with researchers, hardware teams, and operators
• A structured, collaborative approach to solving complex system issues

Nice to have

• Background in manipulation or mobile robotic platforms
• Exposure to robot learning or integrating learned policies into control stacks
• Ability to design or refine custom actuator or sensor hardware

About the company

physicalintelligence is a company where the Controls team builds and tunes core feedback and model-based algorithms, real-time loops, simulations, and actuator/sensor subsystems.