Sr. Robotics Engineer, Controls

Aurelius Systems; San Francisco (CA); On-site; USD 180,000 - 200,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Competitive salary + equity

Health care coverage

PTO + sick leave

Travel to field test events

E-bike / scooter stipend

Daily lunches and office snacks

Job summary

Aurelius Systems, a defense tech startup in San Francisco, seeks a senior IC controls engineer to own the precision pointing and tracking loops, state estimation, and the closed‑loop integration with the tracker. You will work hands‑on with hardware, model‑to‑hardware iteration, Kalman filters, and real‑time control strategies in a fast‑paced startup setting.

The role emphasizes hardware‑in‑the‑loop development, Actuator tuning, and system identification, with opportunities to influence a range

Qualifications

• MS/PhD in engineering field with hands-on robotics experience.
• BS with strong hands-on robotics experience welcomed.
• PhD with a real shipping record is welcome.

Responsibilities

• Own the architecture and tuning of the precision pointing and tracking control loops.
• Handle closed loop tracking from sensor input to actuator command at high frequency.
• Manage state estimation across IMU, encoder, and vision feedback (Kalman filters).
• Model and identify gimbal, mount, and actuator dynamics.
• Tune actuators, apply gain scheduling, and compensate nonlinearities.
• Develop simulation infrastructure and hardware-in-the-loop test setup.
• Characterize system against real targets and document controls standards.

Skills

Robotics experience

Classical controls

State-space LQR MPC

Real-time C++

Python or MATLAB/Simulink

Kalman filters/state estimation

System identification

Motion control hardware

Sensor fusion

Latency and jitter analysis

Education

MS in Mechanical/Electrical/Aerospace/Robotics

BS with hands-on robotics experience

PhD with shipping record welcome

Tools

Hardware-in-the-loop

Servo drives

Brushless motors

Encoders

IMUs

Job description

Who We Are

Aurelius Systems is a VC backed defense tech startup building autonomous, edge deployed directed energy systems for counter-UAS. We build laser weapons to shoot down drones.

Aurelius Systems is a VC backed defense tech startup building autonomous, edge deployed directed energy systems for counter-UAS. We build laser weapons to shoot down drones. We're a small team of engineers, former US military operators, and subject matter experts scaling America's directed energy dominance. The first cost effective, reliable and robust laser weapon system. Our namesake isn't an accident. Marcus Aurelius wrote about doing the work in front of you, every day, without excuses. Henry Ford didn't wait for permission to reinvent manufacturing. That's how we operate — small team, unreasonable output, no hiding behind the unachievable. In addition to our San Francisco lab, we’ve opened a Detroit manufacturing hub and we field test weekly on our own 400-acre private range.

The Role & Your Impact

You’ll own the precision motion stack, full stop. The critical gap we're hiring for is a hands‑on robotics controls engineer who can iterate fast on real hardware. Someone who can take a model, get it on the hardware, characterize what's actually happening, and tighten the loop. You think in Bode plots and step responses. This is a senior IC role on the controls side. You’ll own the architecture and tuning of the precision pointing and tracking control loops, the state estimation behind them, and the closed loop integration with the tracker.

What You’ll Own

• Architecture and tuning of the precision pointing and tracking control loops
• Closed loop tracking from sensor input through actuator command at hundreds of Hz
• State estimation across IMU, encoder, and vision based feedback (Kalman filters, complementary filters, sensor fusion)
• System identification and modeling of the gimbal, mount, and actuator dynamics
• Actuator tuning, gain scheduling, and compensation for nonlinearities (backlash, friction, saturation)
• Resonance characterization, notch filtering, and structural compensation
• Simulation infrastructure for controls development
• Hardware-in-the-loop test infrastructure for controls validation
• Field characterization of the system against real targets at the range
• Author controls documentation and tuning standards

What We’re Looking For

• 4+ years of experience in robotics
• Strong knowledge of fundamentals: classical controls, state space, LQR, MPC
• Proven simulation experience and a track record of managing the sim-to-real gap on actual hardware
• Modern C++ for real time control implementation
• Python or MATLAB/Simulink for modeling, system ID, and analysis
• State estimation in practice (Kalman, EKF, UKF, complementary filters)
• System identification and frequency domain tuning
• Direct experience with motion control hardware — servo drives, brushless motors, encoders, IMUs
• Comfortable working at the seam between mechanical, electrical, and software
• Understanding of latency, jitter, and how they kill control loop performance

Not a fit if

Your controls experience is purely simulation, your real world tuning amounts to changing PID gains in a UI, or you've never had to characterize a resonance, model an actuator, or fight a sensor that lies to you. We need someone who's tuned hardware that fought back.

Nice-to-Haves

• Advanced MPC — nonlinear MPC, robust MPC, or real-time NMPC on resource constrained hardware
• Gimbal, beam director, or precision pointing system experience
• Aerospace, defense, or directed energy controls background
• Adaptive or robust control implementation in production
• Vision-in-the-loop control (visual servoing, image-based tracking)
• Hardware-in-the-loop simulation experience
• High bandwidth sensor pipelines (cameras, radar, IMUs at high rate)
• Prior work on a system that had to hit a moving target

Education

MS in Mechanical Engineering, Aerospace Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Robotics, or related field is the sweet spot. BS with strong hands‑on robotics experience or PhD with a real shipping record both welcome.

How You Operate

• Extreme bias for action. You’d rather tune on hardware tomorrow than model it for a month
• Rigorous testing mindset. You characterize your own loops before the field does
• Comfortable with ambiguity and fast, constantly iterating in a startup environment
• Your brain only releases dopamine when you’re building
• You debug from first principles
• Clear communicator across mechanical, electrical, optical, and software teams
• Self-directed. You identify what needs to happen next and do it without being told

Why Join Aurelius Systems

• Build more in 1 month than most engineers build in 1 year. We field test weekly. Your work goes downrange, not into a filing cabinet.
• Career velocity is real. Erick Brito went from Founding Robotics Engineer to Lead in 12 months. At ~10 engineers, there are no layers between you and impact, or between you and your next title.
• Work on a problem that actually matters. Small, cheap drones are changing warfare. Our laser systems are the asymmetric answer. Think infinite magazine, cost‑per‑shot near zero, scalable to every base, border, facility, truck, and piece of infrastructure.
• Join the densest defense startup ecosystem in the country. California is where the next generation of defense companies are being built. You’ll be in the room with the people reshaping how America builds weapons.

How We Work

Core hours are Monday–Friday, 9 to 6. When we're sprinting toward a demo or field test, the team ramps up; nights, weekends, whatever it takes to ship. When the sprint lands, we ramp down. We don't manufacture intensity for show. We go hard when the mission demands it, and we recover when it doesn't.

Benefits

• Competitive salary + equity
• United Health Care medical, dental, and vision coverage
• Flexible 18 days PTO + 5 sick days
• Travel to field test events and range days
• Covered daily lunches and office snacks + drinks
• E-bike / scooter stipend (up to $500)
• Direct access to leadership and real ownership over your work

Export Control Notice

This role requires access to export‑controlled information or items that require "U.S. Person" status. As defined by U.S. law, individuals who are any one of the following are considered to be a "U.S. Person": (1) U.S. citizens, (2) legal permanent residents (a.k.a. green card holders), and (3) certain protected classes of asylees and refugees, as defined in 8 U.S.C. 1324b(a)(3).

Don’t Check Every Box?

Apply anyway. The filter is simple: walk us through a controller you tuned on real hardware where the sim said one thing and reality said another. If you have that story, we want to talk regardless of what your resume says.

Compensation Range

$180K - $200K