Senior Real-Time Controls Engineer for Industrial Robotics

Persona AI Inc; Houston (TX); On-site; USD 130,000 - 165,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Performance-based bonus

Health benefits (99% covered)

Equity for early employees

Paid time off (PTO)

Winter break

Job summary

Persona AI Inc in Houston, TX is seeking a Controls Systems Engineer to design, implement, and tune real-time control loops for our robot actuators. You will work closely with electrical and mechanical engineers to ensure the control system meets safety and performance goals, bringing up new hardware on the bench.

The role emphasizes embedded C/C++ firmware, PID and state-space analysis, and MATLAB/Simulink modeling.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's, Master's, or PhD in Mechanical or Electrical Engineering.
• 5+ years designing and implementing low-level motor or actuator control systems.
• Strong fundamentals in PID, cascaded control loops, feedforward, and frequency‑domain or state‑space analysis.
• Experience with time synchronized torque control of motors (BLDC/PMSM, FOC, current/torque control).
• Hands‑on embedded firmware experience in C or C++ on microcontrollers or DSPs.
• Comfortable designing and using filters in time critical, low‑latency domains.
• Modeling dynamic systems (MATLAB/Simulink, Python) for controller design.
• Lab fluency with scopes, current probes, and data logging.

Responsibilities

• Design, implement, and tune low‑level control loops for actuators.
• Write and optimize embedded firmware that runs these loops in real time.
• Model actuator and drivetrain dynamics to inform controller design.
• Implement and tune classical control techniques and evaluate advanced approaches.
• Collaborate with electrical engineers to define hardware needed to close the loop.
• Bring up new actuator hardware on the bench and perform initial control loops.
• Debug control performance issues using scopes and data logging.
• Coordinate with motion planning and software teams to support higher‑level tasks.
• Document architectures, tuning procedures, and known limitations.

Skills

PID control

C/C++ embedded

Real-time firmware

MATLAB/Simulink

Python

Data logging

Education

Bachelor's/Master's/PhD in Mechanical or Electrical Engineering

Tools

RTOS

EtherCAT/CAN-FD

Oscilloscope

Current probes

Job description

Persona AI Inc in Houston, TX is seeking a Controls Systems Engineer to design, implement, and tune real-time control loops for our robot actuators. You will work closely with electrical and mechanical engineers to ensure the control system meets safety and performance goals, bringing up new hardware on the bench.

The role emphasizes embedded C/C++ firmware, PID and state-space analysis, and MATLAB/Simulink modeling.