Controls & Embedded Systems Engineer

Golden Gate Recruiting; San Francisco (CA); On-site; USD 175,000 - 225,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Generous stock package

Medical, vision, and dental care

2% matching on 401(k)

Job summary

Golden Gate Recruiting is partnering with American Turbines, a seed-stage hard tech company in San Francisco, to hire a Controls & Embedded Systems Engineer. Based in SF with weeks on-site during installation and commissioning, you will own the embedded control loop from test rig to deployed microturbines.

You will design and implement firmware, select sensors, and refine control logic as the engine runs, collaborating with the test team for fast feedback and iteration.

Qualifications

• Experience with embedded controls and firmware for rotating machinery, engines, or real-time electromechanical systems.
• Ability to read schematics and control logic you didn’t write under pressure.
• Proven track record taking a system from blank sheet to actually running in real hardware.

Responsibilities

• Own embedded controls and firmware for the turbine prototype and on-site deployments.
• Define sensors, P&ID, valve and plumbing selections aligned with control needs.
• Collaborate with test team to validate control logic on the rig and fix issues quickly.
• Deploy microturbines on-site, monitor performance, and scale to a fleet.

Skills

Embedded controls

Firmware development

Real-time systems

Schematics reading

Field troubleshooting

Tools

P&ID interpretation

Job description

Golden Gate Recruiting is thrilled to be hiring for American Turbines, a seed-stage hard tech company in San Francisco backed by the investors behind SpaceX, Boom Supersonic, and Hadrian!

About American Turbines

The power grid was built for a world that no longer exists. Centralized generation, hundred-mile transmission lines, decade-long permitting cycles. Meanwhile, demand is exploding: AI data centers, industrial electrification, remote operations that need megawatts yesterday and can't wait for utilities to catch up.

American Turbines is designing small modular gas turbines, purpose-built for distributed power generation. Machines designed from a blank sheet to be manufactured at scale, clustered in arrays. Hundreds of units operating in parallel, dynamically matching load like a compute cluster matches demand. We are a seed-stage company backed by the investors behind SpaceX, Boom Supersonic, and Hadrian.

About the Role

The Controls & Embedded Systems Engineer owns getting turbines to run: our own first turbine on the test rig, and the microturbines we install at our first customer site.

On the prototype, that means the embedded controls and firmware that take American Turbines' first turbine from start to steady-state operation, keep it running through every test, and shut it down safely when something goes wrong. This includes owning the P&ID, sensor selection, and valve and plumbing choices, since those decisions are inseparable from what you're controlling, but the job is making the engine work. You will work directly with the test team to get the right sensors on the rig and define the control logic and firmware the engine actually runs on. As testing reveals what the engine needs versus what we assumed, you're the one closing that loop.

On deployment, that means running the microturbines we bring on-site, first as a single unit and then as a fleet, on their existing controls. You get these machines started, keep them running, and relay every bit of turbine data back to HQ. You'll be based in San Francisco, but plan on stretches of weeks on-site during installation and commissioning, troubleshooting control issues in the field, in real time, on hardware we're still getting to know. What you learn there feeds back into how we do controls on our own machine.

This is not a role where controls comes in after the hardware is built, and it's not a desk job. You will be embedded in the build from early on, shaping component choices around what's controllable and observable, and you'll be at the site when the work calls for it.

What We're Looking For

Experience with embedded controls and firmware for rotating machinery, engines, or similarly real-time, safety-critical electromechanical systems. You've taken a system from a blank sheet to actually running, not just simulated or spec'd out. You also get productive fast on unfamiliar hardware, reading schematics and control logic you didn't write and finding your way around them under pressure.

You think in failure modes and control loops as much as you think in code. You know how much of this job is judgment calls under uncertainty rather than clean spec work, and you'd rather be watching the engine run than writing the document that describes it. You're comfortable being the person who has to figure out why something isn't working the way the manual says it should, on a system you didn't design.

Compensation and benefits

• $175,000 to $225,000 base.
• Generous stock package.
• Medical, vision, and dental care.
• 2% matching on 401(k).

Location and work authorization

• This role is based on-site in San Francisco (Dogpatch), with stretches of weeks on-site during installation and commissioning. You must live in the SF Bay Area or be open to relocating to San Francisco.
• Visa sponsorship and visa transfers are not offered for this role. Applicants must be authorized to work in the US without sponsorship.