Senior C/C++ controls engineer

Wave Recruitment; Oxford; Hybrid; GBP 65,000 - 95,000; Full time

Job summary

Wave Recruitment is partnering with a fast-growing scale-up to bring AI into the control loop of real industrial systems. You will join the applications team, applying the underlying AI framework to real hardware—from motors to furnaces—at customer sites and in the lab.

Expect to move between writing software, wiring controllers, and standing over test rigs with an oscilloscope; with a small team, your impact and direction are genuinely yours.

Qualifications

• Degree in Control Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Physics, Mechatronics or similar.
• Experience with industrial control systems such as PLCs and Variable Frequency Drives (VFDs).
• Strong Python and C/C++ programming.
• Comfortable across software and hardware boundaries; self-directed.

Responsibilities

• System identification and characterization of electromechanical and dynamic systems.
• Building test rigs and procedures to improve digital twin accuracy.
• System integration and field testing, including on customer sites.
• Developing and improving control software for real-world deployments.
• Contributing to digital twin models and AI controller development.

Skills

Python

C/C++

PLC & VFDs

Self-directed

Hardware-software integration

Industrial control

Education

Degree in Control Engineering

Degree in Electrical Engineering

Degree in Physics

Degree in Mechatronics

Tools

Oscilloscope

Test rigs

Job description

This is with a exciting revenue-making scale-up, it's a hybrid role, with 3 days a week onsite in Oxford offices.

The mission

Bring AI into the control loop of real industrial systems.

Role overview

Sitting in the applications team, you will take the underlying AI framework and put it to work on real hardware for early-adopter industrial customers. Motors, drones, furnaces, whatever the customer runs. Expect to move between writing software, wiring up a controller and standing over a test rig with an oscilloscope. It is a small team, so what you build and how the role shapes up is genuinely yours to influence.

What You'll Own

Systems and hardware

• System identification and characterisation of electromechanical and dynamic systems
• Building test rigs and procedures that improve digital twin accuracy
• System integration and field testing, including on customer sites

Software

• Developing and improving control software for real-world deployments
• Contributing to digital twin models and AI controller development
• Building demo suites that show the framework in action

What We're Looking For

• Degree in Control Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Physics, Mechatronics or similar
• Industry experience, ideally with industrial control systems such as PLCs and Variable Frequency Drives
• Strong Python, working knowledge of C/C++
• Comfortable across the software and hardware boundary, happy with a scope in one hand and an IDE in the other
• Self-directed, able to pick up unfamiliar applications and technologies quickly

Useful

• System identification of electromechanical or dynamic systems
• Industrial motor control and PLC programming
• Reinforcement learning applied to robotics or industrial control
• Genetic or evolutionary computation techniques
• Prior interest in AI applied to control problems