Clera
Senior Robotics Engineer, Controls
- Location
- San Francisco, CA, US
- Arrangement
- On-site
- Employment type
- Full-time
- Level
- Senior
- Posted
- 12 November 2026 (3 days ago)
Checked 2 days agoApplications go to the employer, never to RoleSprint
About this role
ABOUT THE ROLE
Join a small engineering team developing autonomous systems in the defense technology sector. As a senior individual contributor, you will own the precision motion controls stack, from control-loop architecture and state estimation to integration and validation on real hardware.
WHAT YOU'LL DO
- Design and tune precision pointing and tracking control loops, including closed-loop operation from sensor input to actuator commands at hundreds of hertz.
- Develop state estimation and sensor fusion using IMU, encoder, and vision feedback.
- Identify and model gimbal, mount, and actuator dynamics, and compensate for resonance, backlash, friction, saturation, and other nonlinearities.
- Build and maintain controls simulation and hardware-in-the-loop test infrastructure to validate designs and reduce the sim-to-real gap.
- Integrate controls with tracking systems and characterize performance on physical hardware in laboratory and field settings.
- Document controls architecture, tuning approaches, and engineering standards.
WHAT WE'RE LOOKING FOR
- At least 4 years of robotics experience, including hands-on design and tuning of closed-loop controllers on motion hardware such as servo drives, brushless motors, encoders, and IMUs.
- Strong grounding in classical and state-space control, including LQR and MPC, with experience applying control methods to physical systems.
- Practical state-estimation experience, such as Kalman, EKF, UKF, or complementary filters, and sensor fusion on hardware.
- Experience with system identification, frequency-domain tuning, resonance characterization, and real-time control-loop latency and jitter.
- Modern C++ for real-time control, plus Python or MATLAB/Simulink for modeling, simulation, and analysis.
- Experience validating simulations against real hardware and working across mechanical, electrical, and software disciplines.
- Background in precision motion, gimbals, target tracking, aerospace, or other related control systems is valuable.
COMPENSATION & BENEFITS
Base salary: $180,000 to $200,000 annually. Visa sponsorship is not available.
LOCATION
On-site in San Francisco, California.
Work location
- San Francisco, CA, US
Related jobs
Ready to make a decision?
This role is either worth your time or it isn’t.
Analyze the posting against your experience, see the gaps clearly, and build the right materials only if the opportunity makes sense.
Nothing is submitted automatically. You choose what happens next.
About this listing
Published on Ashby under the board identifier Clera, which is the name the employer’s own job board carries. RoleSprint has not verified the company’s registered or trading name, so it is shown exactly as published rather than tidied up.
RoleSprint is not the employer and not a recruiter. Applications are made on the employer’s own site and never reach us; what RoleSprint does is help you decide whether a role is worth your time and prepare for it if it is.
Published 12 November 2026, last checked 2 days ago. A posting stops being advertised here 90 days after the employer published it, and one the employer takes down is marked closed rather than quietly removed.