Senior Fleet-Scale System ID & Controls Engineer

Skild; San Mateo (CA); On-site; USD 150,000 - 210,000; Full time

Job summary

Skild AI in San Mateo, CA is seeking a System Identification & Controls Engineer to characterize, model, and validate robotic dynamics. This senior individual-contributor role focuses on rigorous identification on real robots and improving fleet-scale performance.

You will design excitation trajectories, run bench and on-robot tests, and quantify model accuracy to close the sim-to-real gap with our simulators. Strong controls and hardware-testing experience are essential.

Qualifications

• MS or PhD in Mechanical/Electrical Engineering, Controls, Robotics, or related field.
• Hands-on system identification on real robotic hardware.
• Experience with hardware tests and software analysis.

Responsibilities

• Plan and perform system identification across robot platforms.
• Design excitation trajectories and tests (bench/on-robot).
• Characterize actuators and motors with test benches.
• Fit dynamics models and close the sim-to-real gap.
• Apply classical controls to real hardware.
• Build scalable identification pipelines for fleets.
• Quantify unit variation, drift, and wear over time.
• Set standards for system identification at Skild and document findings.

Skills

Classical controls fundamentals

Python & C++ in Linux

Kalman filtering / state estimation

Robotics dynamics tooling (MuJoCo, ROS

Hardware-in-the-loop testing

System identification on robots

Education

MS/PhD in Mechanical/Electrical Engineering, Controls, Robotics

Tools

MATLAB/Simulink

Job description

Skild AI in San Mateo, CA is seeking a System Identification & Controls Engineer to characterize, model, and validate robotic dynamics. This senior individual-contributor role focuses on rigorous identification on real robots and improving fleet-scale performance.

You will design excitation trajectories, run bench and on-robot tests, and quantify model accuracy to close the sim-to-real gap with our simulators. Strong controls and hardware-testing experience are essential.