Senior / Staff Robotics Controls Engineer

The role

You will develop and deploy control software for motion and interaction. You will work through sensing, actuation, timing and contact challenges to turn operator and planner intent into predictable physical behavior.

What you will do

• Design, implement and tune controllers for joint, Cartesian or coordinated robot motion.
• Integrate control with kinematics, dynamics, task priorities and practical actuator or workspace limits.
• Develop appropriate interaction behavior for tasks that require impedance, admittance, force or other compliance methods.
• Implement controller behavior for command-source changes, mode transitions, stale inputs, stopping and recovery.
• Build maintainable C++ control software with attention to timing, concurrency, resource use and diagnostic evidence.
• Design experiments and analyze data to investigate tracking, oscillation, saturation, friction, sensing and model mismatch.
• Work with planning, platform, teleoperation and test engineers to validate complete workflows and maintain controller regression coverage.

Required qualifications

• BS, MS or PhD in Robotics, Mechanical Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Computer Science or a related field, or equivalent practical experience.
• Experience implementing and debugging feedback controllers on manipulators, mobile robots or comparable physical motion systems.
• Strong understanding of feedback control, kinematics, dynamics, stability and model uncertainty.
• Substantial experience in one or more of Cartesian control, whole-body coordination, impedance/admittance, force control or related methods.
• Strong C++ skills and practical Python experience for analysis, experimentation and tooling.
• Ability to connect observed behavior to sensing, actuation, timing, software and model assumptions.
• Ability to take a control workstream from formulation and implementation through measured hardware validation.

Nice to have

• Experience with whole-body optimization, task prioritization or mobile manipulation.
• Experience with contact-rich tasks, force sensing or compliant manipulation.
• Experience with ROS 2 or comparable robotics middleware.
• Experience with real-time software, control performance analysis or constrained computing platforms.
• Experience maintaining controller behavior on deployed robots beyond initial demonstrations.

Benefits

• Competitive stock options/equity programs.
• Health, dental, and vision insurance.
• 401(k) plan.
• Visa sponsorship and green card support for qualified candidates.
• Lunches and dinners.
• A fully stocked kitchen.
• Regular team-building events.

About the company

RoboForce is an AI robotics company developing Physical AI–powered Robo-Labor for dull, dirty, and dangerous work. The company’s robots are engineered for demanding industrial environments, with a focus on real-world deployment and scalability.