Senior Robotics Controls Engineer – Real-Time Hardware

Detroit Venture Partners, LLC.; San Francisco (CA); On-site; USD 150,000 - 190,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Equity

Health coverage

Lunches and snacks

Job summary

Aurelius Systems, a VC-backed defense tech startup, seeks a senior robotics controls engineer to own precision pointing and tracking loops. You’ll move models to hardware, characterize performance, and tighten feedback with high-bandwidth sensing and Kalman fusion.

You’ll work at the intersection of mechanical, electrical, and software teams, delivering robust HIL validation and field-ready control systems for a laser-guided platform.

Qualifications

• 4+ years of robotics experience.
• Strong fundamentals: classical controls, state-space, LQR, MPC.
• Proven sim-to-real track record on hardware.
• Proficient in Python and/or MATLAB/Simulink for modeling and analysis.
• Experience with Kalman/UKF/compFilters and sensor fusion.
• Direct experience with motion control hardware (servos, encoders, IMUs).
• Ability to work across mechanical, electrical, and software domains.
• Understanding latency and jitter effects on control loops.

Responsibilities

• Architecture and tuning of precision pointing and tracking control loops.
• Closed loop tracking from sensor input to actuator command at high Hz.
• State estimation across IMU, encoder, and vision-based feedback.
• System identification and modeling of gimbal, mount, and actuator dynamics.
• Actuator tuning, gain scheduling, and nonlinear compensation.
• HIL simulation and validation infrastructure.
• Field characterization against real targets at the range.
• Author controls documentation and tuning standards.

Skills

Robotics experience

Classical controls

State estimation

Kalman filters

LQR

MPC

C++

Python

System identification

Sensor fusion

Education

MS in Mechanical Engineering or related

BS with hands-on robotics experience

Tools

Real-time C++ frameworks

MATLAB/Simulink

HIL tooling

Job description

Aurelius Systems, a VC-backed defense tech startup, seeks a senior robotics controls engineer to own precision pointing and tracking loops. You’ll move models to hardware, characterize performance, and tighten feedback with high-bandwidth sensing and Kalman fusion.

You’ll work at the intersection of mechanical, electrical, and software teams, delivering robust HIL validation and field-ready control systems for a laser-guided platform.