Member of Technical Staff (Robotics Controls Engineer)

Maxwell Bond; New York (NY); On-site; USD 120,000 - 160,000; Full time

Job summary

Maxwell Bond is seeking a hands-on Member of Technical Staff (Robotics Controls Engineer) in New York, NY to design and deploy low-level control systems for multi-DOF robotic arms. You will work closely with hardware, motion planning, and perception teams to bring real-time controllers from simulation to production hardware.

The role requires experience shipping robotics controls on physical hardware, a strong background in classical control (PID, LQR), and proficiency in C++ and Python.

Qualifications

• BS, MS, or PhD in Robotics, Electrical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Computer Science, Aerospace Engineering, or a related technical field.

Responsibilities

• Design, implement, and tune low-level controllers for multi-DOF robotic arms, including position, velocity, torque, impedance, and admittance control.
• Build and maintain real-time control loops and interfaces to motor drivers and actuators using EtherCAT, CAN, current control, and torque control.
• Develop and integrate motion planning systems for manipulation, including collision-free planning, trajectory optimization, and trajectory retiming.
• Develop and maintain kinematics and dynamics models, including forward and inverse kinematics, Jacobians, rigid-body dynamics, system identification, and calibration.
• Deploy controllers and planners onto physical robots and debug the gap between simulation and real-world hardware.
• Diagnose performance issues involving latency, actuator behavior, sensing, dynamics, calibration, and mechanical limitations.
• Collaborate with perception, learning, mechanical, and electrical teams to turn desired behaviors into smooth, safe, repeatable arm motion.
• Improve the robustness, performance, and reliability of the robotics software stack through testing, instrumentation, and systematic debugging.
• Contribute to architecture and technical decisions across low-level controls, motion planning, and manipulation systems.

Skills

Robotics controls

C++

Python

ROS/ROS 2

Control theory

PID

LQR

Real-time systems

Education

BS/MS/PhD in Robotics, Electrical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Computer Science, Aerospace Engineering, or related field

Tools

MoveIt

cuRobo

OMPL

TrajOpt

Job description

Member of Technical Staff — Robotics Controls Engineer

Location: New York, NY — Onsite
Employment Type: Full-time
Team: Robotics / Software

About the Role

We are building and deploying humanoid robots designed to operate on real factory floors and perform meaningful work in demanding production environments. The arms are central to that mission, and we are looking for a Member of Technical Staff (Robotics Controls Engineer) to develop the low-level control and motion systems that make these robots capable, reliable, and responsive.

As a Member of Technical Staff (Robotics Controls Engineer), you will work close to the hardware across control loops, robot dynamics, actuator drivers, motion planning, and system integration. You will help take manipulation behaviors from algorithms and simulation onto physical robots, solving the real-world problems that emerge between simulation and deployment.

This is a hands-on individual contributor position for a Member of Technical Staff (Robotics Controls Engineer) who enjoys working close to the metal and has experience shipping robotics controls or motion systems on real hardware. You should be comfortable discussing and implementing PID, LQR, impedance control, trajectory optimization, kinematics, dynamics, and real-time control.

Experience tuning industrial arms, cobots, or other manipulators is highly relevant. We are particularly interested in engineers who understand not only the theory behind modern robotics control, but also what it takes to make controllers behave reliably on physical hardware.

What You'll Do

• Design, implement, and tune low-level controllers for multi-DOF robotic arms, including position, velocity, torque, impedance, and admittance control.
• Build and maintain real-time control loops and interfaces to motor drivers and actuators using technologies such as EtherCAT, CAN, current control, and torque control.
• Develop and integrate motion planning systems for manipulation, including collision-free planning, trajectory optimization, and trajectory retiming.
• Develop and maintain kinematics and dynamics models, including forward and inverse kinematics, Jacobians, rigid-body dynamics, system identification, and calibration.
• Deploy controllers and planners onto physical robots and debug the gap between simulation and real-world hardware.
• Diagnose performance issues involving latency, actuator behavior, sensing, dynamics, calibration, and mechanical limitations.
• Collaborate with perception, learning, mechanical, and electrical teams to turn desired behaviors into smooth, safe, repeatable arm motion.
• Improve the robustness, performance, and reliability of the robotics software stack through testing, instrumentation, and systematic debugging.
• Contribute to architecture and technical decisions across low-level controls, motion planning, and manipulation systems.

Required Qualifications

• BS, MS, or PhD in Robotics, Electrical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Computer Science, Aerospace Engineering, or a related technical field.
• 4+ years of hands-on experience developing and shipping robotics controls or motion systems on physical hardware. Equivalent advanced research or project experience may be considered.
• Direct experience developing controls and/or motion systems for robotic arms, industrial manipulators, cobots, or comparable robotic platforms.
• Strong understanding of classical control, including PID, LQR, state-space methods, and preferably impedance or admittance control.
• Familiarity with whole-body control and/or model predictive control is a plus.
• Experience with motion-planning frameworks such as MoveIt, cuRobo, OMPL, TrajOpt, or comparable systems, with an understanding of their underlying algorithms.
• Strong fundamentals in rigid-body kinematics, dynamics, control theory, and real-time systems.
• Proficiency in C++ and Python.
• Comfortable working with ROS or ROS 2.
• Demonstrated ability to take robotics algorithms from simulation onto physical hardware and make them robust in real-world operation.
• Strong debugging skills and a willingness to work directly with robots, sensors, actuators, and test infrastructure.

Nice to Have

• Perception experience, including traditional computer vision, depth sensing, point clouds, pose estimation, SLAM, or manipulation-focused calibration.
• Experience with learning-based robotics, including imitation learning, diffusion policies, or reinforcement learning.
• Familiarity with AI world models and Vision-Language-Action (VLA) systems.
• Experience with systems such as OpenVLA, ?0, or RT-style robotic policies.
• Simulation experience with Isaac Sim/Lab, MuJoCo, Gazebo, Drake, or similar platforms.
• Background in real-time or embedded control systems.
• Experience working directly with actuator electronics, motor controllers, or robotic hardware.
• Experience deploying manipulation systems in industrial or production environments.
• Publications, patents, open-source robotics contributions, or significant personal robotics projects.

What We're Looking For

The ideal Member of Technical Staff (Robotics Controls Engineer) combines strong mathematical and controls fundamentals with practical robotics engineering judgment. You should enjoy investigating why a controller behaves differently on hardware than in simulation and be comfortable moving between equations, code, logs, and physical robots.

We value engineers who take ownership, iterate quickly, and care about making systems work reliably outside of a laboratory environment. The Member of Technical Staff (Robotics Controls Engineer) will have the opportunity to work across the full stack of manipulation control, from low-level actuator behavior through motion planning and deployment.

We welcome applicants from all backgrounds and are committed to building an inclusive and equal-opportunity workplace.