Staff Robot Controls Integration Engineer

Rhoda AI; Mountain View (CA); On-site; USD 180,000 - 240,000; Full time

Job summary

Rhoda AI is seeking a Staff Robot Controls Integration Engineer to bridge control algorithms and hardware. You will bring MATLAB/Simulink models into real-time firmware on microcontrollers and RTOS platforms, validate with hardware-in-the-loop benches, and drive fixes for reliability in challenging field conditions.

You’ll work across motor control, sensors, and communication stacks, aiming for sub-millisecond latency and robust control performance in real-world environments.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Electrical, Mechanical, or closely related engineering discipline.
• 8+ Years of experience in one or more: real-time systems, firmware, control theory, or motor control.
• Hands-on motor controls: PID tuning, FOC, torque control or trajectory tracking on real hardware.
• Real-time systems and firmware: interrupt latency, RTOS, or real-time Linux.
• Communication protocols: CAN, CAN FD, EtherCAT; testing and timing verification.
• Sensor integration and validation: encoders, IMUs, force/torque sensors; understanding sensor delay.
• HiL and SIL: fault-injection tests; MATLAB/Simulink; FPGA or equivalent.

Responsibilities

• Integrate control algorithms from MATLAB/Simulink into real-time firmware on microcontrollers and RTOS-based systems.
• Bring up and commission CAN, EtherCAT buses connecting motor controllers, MCUs, and compute hardware; verify timing to sub-millisecond latency.
• Characterize motors and actuators; tune FOC and cogging compensation; validate bandwidth and stability margins.
• Build and operate hardware-in-the-loop test benches to simulate robot dynamics and run automated tests.
• Profile real-time performance; measure latency in firmware, communications, and control loops; fix timing violations.
• Perform root-cause analysis of field issues; collaborate with Firmware and Hardware teams to deliver durable fixes.

Skills

Control theory

Real-time systems

Firmware debugging

Hardware bringup

Sensor integration

HiL/SIL testing

Education

Bachelor's degree in Electrical, Mechanical, or closely related engineering

Tools

MATLAB/Simulink

Real-time Linux

RTOS

CAN/CAN FD, EtherCAT

CANoe/Vector tooling

Job description

At Rhoda AI, we’re building the next generation of generalist intelligent robots. We own the full robotics stack from high-performance hardware and robot systems to the infrastructure and state-of-the-art foundation world models that control our robots. Our robots are designed to be generalists capable of operating in complex, real-world environments and handling long-tail edge cases, made possible by our cutting edge research and end-to-end system design. We've raised over $450M and are investing aggressively in model research, infrastructure, hardware development, and manufacturing scale-up to make generalist robotics a reality.

About the Role

We're looking for a Staff Robot Controls Integration Engineer to own the bridge between our control algorithms and real-world hardware — the critical point where physics meets firmware. You'll integrate motor control stacks, real-time communication protocols, and sensing systems into a cohesive, predictable platform that performs reliably in demanding field conditions. This role sits at the intersection of embedded firmware, control theory, and hardware bringup: you'll validate control behavior across the full stack, diagnose timing and performance issues, and drive fixes that make our robots actually work.

What You'll Do

• Control algorithm integration: Take control strategies from MATLAB/Simulink into real-time firmware on microcontrollers and real-time Linux systems. Validate that implemented behavior matches design intent through dynamic testing and closed-loop validation.

• Real-time protocol bringup: Integrate and commission communication buses (CAN, EtherCAT) connecting motor controllers, microcontrollers, and compute hardware. Conduct encoder linearization, sensor calibration, and protocol timing verification to achieve reliable sub-millisecond latency.

• Motor and actuator characterization: Work with firmware teams to validate motor performance — cogging torque compensation, field-oriented control tuning, friction modeling. Conduct dynamic testing (Bode analysis, step response) to verify control bandwidth and stability margins.

• Hardware-in-the-loop system design: Build and operate test benches that simulate robot dynamics, inject faults, and validate closed-loop behavior before deployment. Create repeatable, automated tests that catch control instability and latency issues early.

• Real-time performance profiling: Measure and optimize latency paths across the stack — firmware interrupt handlers, communication pipeline, control loops. Identify and close timing violations that degrade control quality.

• Troubleshooting and root-cause analysis: When robots exhibit unexpected behavior in the field, methodically isolate the cause — is it the control law, firmware implementation, communication delay, or hardware? Turn findings into durable fixes working alongside Firmware and Hardware teams.

What We're Looking For

• Bachelor's degree in Electrical, Mechanical, or closely related engineering discipline.

• 8+ Years of experience working on at least one of the following areas:

• Hands-on motor controls: You've implemented or tuned PID loops, field-oriented control, torque control, or trajectory tracking on real hardware. Comfortable reasoning about poles, stability, and bandwidth.

• Real-time systems and firmware: You understand interrupt latency, real-time constraints, and the gap between algorithm and implementation. Experience with real-time Linux, microcontroller programming, or RTOS.

• Communication protocols: Solid experience with CAN, CAN FD, or EtherCAT — protocol analysis, debugging, timing verification. Familiar with CANoe, Vector tooling, or oscilloscope-based signal capture.

• Sensor integration and validation: You've brought up encoders, IMUs, force/torque sensors. Understand aliasing, noise filtering, calibration, and how sensor delay cascades into control performance.

• HiL and SIL: You design tests that matter — fault-injection tests that probe stability margins, saturation behavior, and graceful degradation. Experience with Simulink, FPGA platforms, or equivalent.

• Control theory: You understand dynamics, Laplace transforms, Bode plots, poles and zeros. Can read a control diagram and reason about closed-loop behavior and system stability.

Nice to Have

• Experience with EtherCAT, SOEM, Beckhoff hardware, or TwinCAT real-time platforms.

• Proficiency in MATLAB/Simulink for modeling, parameter identification, and control-system analysis.

• Python or C++ for test automation, firmware tooling, and data post-processing.

• Experience with motor characterization: cogging torque analysis, friction modeling, thermal dynamics.

• Familiarity with functional safety standards and how control performance ties into safety requirements.

• Prior experience supporting fielded systems, turning customer-reported instabilities into durable firmware fixes.