Whole-Body Controls Engineer: Real-Time Robot Controller

GRAM; El Segundo (CA); On-site; USD 140,000 - 200,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Relocation bonus

Health coverage

Equity

Job summary

GRAM in El Segundo, CA is seeking a skilled robotics controls engineer to design and implement a real-time, full-body control architecture for a multi‑DOF insectoid system. You will coordinate motion across changing geometry, contact, load, and machine state using production C++ and hardware‑in‑the‑loop environments.

You will develop control‑oriented models, system identification, and safety logic, and you will validate results on physical hardware.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in a related field or equivalent experience.
• Experience developing feedback control for a multi-DOF robot or similar system.
• Strong C++ and Python skills; knowledge of dynamics, optimization, numerical methods.

Responsibilities

• Design whole-body controllers coordinating motion and contact forces across DOFs.
• Implement real-time control software with timing, stability, saturation, fault handling.
• Develop models, system identification, and actuator characterizations.
• Integrate state estimation, trajectory generation, embedded systems, safety logic.
• Define envelopes for tracking error, stability, disturbance rejection, latency.
• Build simulations, hardware-in-the-loop tests, and physical-machine tests.
• Differentiate controller defects from estimation errors and unmodeled dynamics.
• Document model validity and verify results on hardware.

Skills

Real-time control

Multi-DOF robotics

C++ & Python

Rigid-body dynamics

Optimization

Numerical methods

Education

Bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, robotics, controls, applied mathematics, or related field

Tools

Drake

Pinocchio

MuJoCo

ROS 2 control

Eigen

Job description

GRAM in El Segundo, CA is seeking a skilled robotics controls engineer to design and implement a real-time, full-body control architecture for a multi‑DOF insectoid system. You will coordinate motion across changing geometry, contact, load, and machine state using production C++ and hardware‑in‑the‑loop environments.

You will develop control‑oriented models, system identification, and safety logic, and you will validate results on physical hardware.