Foundation · 9 hours ago
Principal Controls Engineer
San Francisco, CA
Full-time
Onsite
Senior Level, Lead/Staff
$180K/yr - $280K/yr
5+ years expFoundation is developing the future of general purpose robotics with the goal to address the labor shortage. They are seeking a Principal Controls Engineer to develop and optimize control systems for humanoid robots, ensuring precise and safe motion in complex environments.
Artificial Intelligence (AI)RoboticsMachine Learning
Responsibilities
To develop and optimize the control systems that enable precise, smooth, and safe motion in our humanoid robots
To bridge the gap between AI-generated action models (e.g., RL policies) and the robot’s physical execution by designing robust motion planning, state estimation, and lower-level control architectures
To create full-body controllers that seamlessly integrate inputs from action models with real-time feedback, ensuring high performance in complex environments
To ensure our robots can execute tasks reliably, from manipulation to locomotion, while maintaining stability and efficiency
To scale our controls stack for deployment across various robot configurations, supporting a wide range of customer applications
Qualification
Required
Strong background in control theory, including linear and nonlinear systems, feedback control, stability analysis, and optimal control methods
Proficiency in state estimation techniques, such as Kalman filters, particle filters, or sensor fusion for estimating robot pose, velocity, and dynamics from noisy sensor data (e.g., IMUs, encoders, vision)
Experience with low-level control strategies, including PID controllers, torque control, velocity control, and position control for actuators and joints
Skilled in developing full-body controllers that integrate multiple degrees of freedom (DoF), handling kinematics, dynamics, and inverse kinematics
Ability to translate high-level action outputs (e.g., from AI or RL models) into low-level commands such as joint angles, torques, velocities, and forces
Familiarity with optimization techniques for trajectory planning, model predictive control (MPC), and real-time feedback integration
Proficiency in programming languages such as C++ and Python
Experience with robotics middleware (e.g., ROS2) and real-time control systems
Strong understanding of numerical methods and computational algorithms for control
Ability to analyze complex motion requirements and design control algorithms to meet them
Comfortable troubleshooting control issues in a physical robot and iterating quickly to improve performance
Comfortable working with hardware-in-the-loop systems and integrating controls with physical robots
Collaborates effectively with AI researchers, mechanical engineers, and electrical engineers to ensure seamless system integration
Minimum of 5 years of experience in controls engineering, motion planning, or a similar field; experience from humanoids is ideal but not required. Transferable skills from drones, autonomous vehicles, or industrial robotics are welcome if they include state estimation and low-level controls
Bachelor's or Master's degree in Robotics, Mechanical Engineering, Computer Science, or a related field. A PhD is a plus
Preferred
Experience with reinforcement learning (RL) for control policies is a strong plus
Experience with real-time operating systems and control frameworks is highly desirable
Benefits
Health
Vision
Dental
401k
Company
Foundation
Foundation is developing the future of general purpose robotics with the goal to address the labor shortage.
51-200 employees
H1B Sponsorship
Foundation has a track record of offering H1B sponsorships. Please note that this does not
guarantee sponsorship for this specific role. Below presents additional info for your
reference. (Data Powered by US Department of Labor)
Distribution of Different Job Fields Receiving Sponsorship
Represents job field similar to this job
Trends of Total Sponsorships
2025 (1)
Funding
Current Stage
Growth StageTotal Funding
unknown2024-08-22Pre Seed
Company data provided by crunchbase