Senior Robotics Controls Engineer

Senior Robotics Controls Engineer Compensation: $150K–$250K base + equity (no bonus) Location: South San Francisco, CA (5 days/week in office) Work Policy: On-site only Relocation: $5K–$10K assistance available Stage: Seed-stage surgical robotics startup | $14M funding | Founded 2023

Who Are We? We’re building autonomous surgical robots designed to dramatically shorten the learning curve for surgeons. Using off-the-shelf robotic hardware combined with advanced planning, controls, and machine learning algorithms, we’re enabling surgeons to provide complex procedures with greater speed and precision.

This is low-latency, high-accuracy robotics operating in real clinical environments. Our systems combine motion planning, control theory, computer vision, and intuitive human-machine interfaces. We are early, well-funded, and building the core control logic from scratch.

What’s in It for You? You’ll define the algorithms that control a surgical robot—not just tune parameters.

You’ll work on real-time control systems that must be both precise and reliable.

You’ll collaborate directly with founders and a small, highly technical team.

You’ll own projects from design through production release.

You’ll receive competitive base compensation, meaningful equity, relocation support, and the opportunity to grow into technical leadership as the team expands.

What Will You Do? Develop and implement control systems and motion planning algorithms for our robotic platform.

Design linear and non-linear control strategies for precision surgical actuation.

Work on state estimation, inverse kinematics, trajectory generation, and model predictive control (MPC).

Implement and optimize robotics software in C++ and Python.

Translate high-level surgical guidance into low-level robot execution logic.

Collaborate with hardware, perception, and UI teams to integrate sensing, planning, and control.

Participate in whiteboard robotics design sessions and deep technical discussions.

Travel up to once per month to customer sites and observe real surgical procedures to improve system performance.

What Will You Need? Bachelor’s degree in Robotics, Engineering, Computer Science, or related technical field (academically strong).

3+ years of experience in robotics engineering or related domains.

Strong foundation in control theory (linear and non-linear systems).

Strong software engineering skills in C++ and Python.

Experience implementing control systems in production—not just simulation or academic projects.

Ownership mindset: demonstrated experience taking a project from concept to release.

Comfort working in fast-paced startup environments (not a 9–5 mindset).

Strong communication skills and ability to collaborate cross-functionally.

Strongly Preferred Master’s degree.

Experience in autonomous vehicles, aerospace GNC, embedded flight controls, or similar high-performance domains.

Knowledge of surgical robotics systems.

Experience with ROS or robotics middleware.

We are not looking for manufacturing controls engineers focused on operator systems, nor candidates whose experience is limited to MATLAB prototyping. This role is about defining and implementing the core control algorithms that bring autonomous surgical systems to life.

If you want to work on robotics that directly impacts patient outcomes—and you enjoy solving hard control problems under real-world constraints—this is the role.