Job Title: Low Level Controls Engineer
Department: Hardware
Employment Type: Full-Time
Location: Houston, TX
Travel: 10%
About the RoleWe're looking for a Low-Level Controls Engineer to design, implement, and tune the real-time control loops that make our actuators and joints move precisely, safely, and reliably. This is the layer that sits closest to the hardware - motor drive, current and torque control, position/velocity control, and the embedded software that runs it on real silicon, in real time, on a real robot.
You'll work hand-in-hand with electrical and mechanical engineers to understand the actuator hardware you're controlling, and with higher-level autonomy and motion-planning engineers to make sure your control loops deliver on what the robot needs to do. We're open to candidates from either a mechanical or electrical engineering background, as long as you have strong controls fundamentals and are comfortable getting hands-on with embedded hardware and real actuators on the bench
What You Will Be Doing- Design, implement, and tune low-level control loops (current, torque, velocity, and position control) for electromechanical actuators.
- Write and optimize embedded firmware that runs these control loops in real time on microcontrollers or DSPs.
- Model actuator and drivetrain dynamics (motors, gearboxes, transmissions, sensors) to inform controller design and tuning.
- Implement and tune classical control techniques (PID, cascaded loops, feedforward, state observers) and evaluate more advanced approaches where warranted.
- Work with electrical engineers to define current sensing, gate drive, encoder/sensor feedback, and other hardware needed to close the loop well.
- Bring up new actuator hardware on the bench: instrument it, characterize its behavior, and get first control loops running.
- Debug control performance issues using scopes, logic analyzers, and data logging - distinguishing hardware, firmware, and tuning problems.
- Collaborate with motion planning, autonomy, and software teams to ensure low-level control behavior supports the robot's higher-level tasks.
- Document control architectures, tuning procedures, and known limitations so other engineers can build on your work.
What We Are Looking For:- Bachelor's, Master's, or PhD degree in Mechanical Engineering, Electrical Engineering, or a related field.
- 5+ years of experience designing and implementing low-level motor or actuator control systems (less with an advanced degree focused on controls).
- Strong fundamentals in classical controls: PID, cascaded control loops, feedforward, and frequency-domain or state-space analysis.
- Experience with time synchronized torque control of motors (BLDC/PMSM, FOC, current/torque control) or other electromechanical actuator force control.
- Experience working with encoders, strain gauges, or other analog or digital sensors.
- Hands-on embedded firmware experience in C or C++ on microcontrollers or DSPs, including real-time constraints and interrupt-driven code.
- Comfortable designing and using filters in time critical, low-latency domains.
- Comfortable modeling and analyzing dynamic systems (MATLAB/Simulink, Python, or similar) to design and validate controllers before and after hardware bring-up.
- Lab fluency: comfortable with a scope, current probes, and data logging to characterize hardware and debug control performance.
- Strong analytical and problem-solving skills, with the tenacity to track down issues that span hardware, firmware, and tuning.
- A friendly, collaborative mindset, strong communication skills, and excitement to work hands-on in a dynamic, supportive team environment; design without ego.
Bonus Skills:- Experience controlling actuators for robotics, exoskeletons, or other articulated mechanical systems.
- Familiarity with real-time operating systems (RTOS) and deterministic scheduling.
- Experience with EtherCAT, CAN-FD, or other industrial/robotics communication protocols used for control.
- Exposure to state estimation techniques (Kalman filters, observers) for sensor fusion at the actuator level.
- Experience with strain-wave, cycloidal, or planetary transmissions and their impact on control design.
- Familiarity with functional safety standards (IEC 61508, ISO 13849, ISO 26262) as applied to motor control systems.
- Experience working closely with electrical engineers on driver hardware (gate drive, current sensing) and mechanical engineers on transmission design.
- Comfortable reviewing schematics and PCB layouts well enough to debug control hardware issues.
