Electrical Engineer, Motor Controllers

Weave Robotics, Inc.; San Francisco, Northern (CA, KY); Hybrid; USD 120,000 - 180,000; Full time

Job summary

Weave Robotics, Inc. in San Francisco, CA is seeking a hands-on Motor Drive Engineer to own motor controllers and actuation systems for in-home robotic platforms.

You will design motor controller boards, integrate encoders and feedback, and bring up FOC with production collaboration to deliver quiet, efficient actuation for consumer homes. The role requires 3+ years in motor drive hardware, PCB design in Altium, and proficiency with EtherCAT/CAN/SPI/I2C, plus embedded firmware in C or Rust.

Qualifications

• 3+ years designing motor drive or power electronics hardware: inverters, servo drives, robot actuators, e-mobility, or similar products.
• Hands-on FOC: implemented or tuned field-oriented control on real hardware: current loops, SVPWM, sensor calibration.
• PCB design: multilayer boards in Altium, schematic capture through layout and bring-up.
• Communication protocols: EtherCAT, CAN/CAN FD, SPI, I2C, and other embedded serial buses.
• Firmware bring-up and debug: embedded C or Rust to tune loops and debug behavior.
• Hands-on debugging: oscilloscopes, current probes, electronic loads.

Responsibilities

• Design motor controller boards: gate drive, power stage, current sensing, MCU, and protection circuitry from schematic through layout, bring-up, validation, and production.
• Own the feedback inputs: encoders, halls, phase voltage sensing, thermistors, signal conditioning and noise immunity near the switching stage.
• Bring up and tune FOC: commutate new motor/board combinations, tune current loops, calibrate encoder offsets, identify motor parameters, and verify torque accuracy on the dyno.
• Design for quiet and efficiency: switching behavior, PWM strategy, thermal design, EMI/EMC for a consumer product near people.
• Support production: drive DFM/DFT, panelization, test point and programming strategy, end-of-line test coverage, and per-unit calibration routines.

Skills

Motor drive expertise

FOC tuning

PCB design (Altium)

Communication protocols

Embedded firmware (C/Rust)

Oscilloscope debugging

Tools

Altium

Job description

Weave was founded to build the robots we’d want to have in our own home. We believe the next generation of robotics will transform everyday life by enabling people to do more and to reclaim time to spend on what’s important.

We also believe robots are in a sense like any other product: to matter, they have to ship. Our robots are already operating in real homes and businesses, giving us the opportunity to rapidly improve from real-world experience. With a growing team, strong customer demand, and capital for expansion, we’re entering an exciting stage of growth—and we’re looking for people with exceptional talent and standards to help bring home robotics to millions of households.

The Role

Weave builds and deploys some of the first bimanual robots operating in customer homes. How capable, safe, quiet, and efficient our robots are has a floor, and that floor is set by their actuators. To push it, we design and build our own, on our own floor in San Francisco.

In this role, you'll own the motor controllers and the motors they drive: gate drive, power stage, current sensing, feedback interfaces, and the FOC bring-up and tuning that turns a new board and a new motor into an actuator that works efficiently, quietly and reliably. Working closely with our firmware, mechanical, and manufacturing teams, you’ll carry controllers from architecture through production, designed for a robot that has to be powerful, precise, safe, and quiet enough to live in someone’s home.

Responsibilities

Design motor controller boards: gate drive, power stage, current sensing, MCU, and protection circuitry for our in-house actuators, across different voltage and current requirements, from schematic through layout, bring-up, validation, and production.

Own the feedback inputs: the interfaces the control loops live on: encoders, halls, phase voltage sensing, and thermistors, including signal conditioning, noise immunity next to a switching stage, and the timing and synchronization that current sampling requires.

Bring up and tune FOC: commutate new motor and board combinations, tune current loops, calibrate encoder offsets, identify motor parameters, and verify torque accuracy and smoothness on the dyno, partnering with the firmware team that owns the production control software.

Design for quiet and efficiency: switching behavior, PWM strategy, thermal design, and EMI/EMC engineered for a consumer product that runs near people, not an industrial cabinet.

Support production: Drive DFM/DFT, panelization, test point and programming strategy, end-of-line test coverage, and the per-unit calibration routines our line runs on every controller.

What You'll Bring

Motor drive expertise: 3+ years designing motor drive or power electronics hardware: inverters, servo drives, robot actuators, e-mobility, or similar products. Solid grounding in BLDC/PMSM machine fundamentals.

Hands-on FOC: you’ve implemented or tuned field-oriented control on real hardware: current loops, SVPWM, sensor calibration, and you know how board design choices show up as torque ripple, acoustic noise, or dead-time distortion.

PCB design: complex multilayer boards in Altium or similar, from schematic capture through layout and bring-up. You know what switching-stage layout demands: power loop area, Kelvin connections on shunts, gate drive routing, plane strategy.

Communication protocols: Experience with EtherCAT, CAN/CAN FD, SPI, I²C, and other embedded serial buses and real-time industrial networks.

Firmware bring-up and debug: comfortable in embedded C or Rust to tune loops, instrument boards, and debug control behavior without waiting on a firmware engineer.

Hands-on debugging: oscilloscopes, current probes, and electronic loads as daily tools; you find the ringing before the field does.

Nice to Have

Anti-cogging compensation, motor parameter identification pipelines, or acoustic noise reduction work.

Sensorless or observer-based commutation experience.

Functional safety in motor drives: STO, redundant sensing.

Experience taking motor drive hardware through EMC compliance.

Experience shipping production motor controllers in consumer products.

Experience with GaN or high-voltage systems.