Robotics Engineer, Staff

Job description

**Location:** Onsite — Austin, TX **Employment Type:** Full‑Time **Job Title:** Lead Robotics Engineer **Company Overview** 9 Mothers Defense develops AI-enabled systems to counter unmanned aerial threats. Our first product, EDDA, is an autonomous counter-sUAS point-defense platform designed to detect, track, and neutralize Group 1 drone threats. The company is headquartered in Austin, Texas. **Position Summary** 9 Mothers is seeking a Robotics Lead to own the control systems and motion engineering for our counter-sUAS platform. The Robotics Lead is responsible for the design, implementation, and tuning of the high-bandwidth control loops and state estimation that enable EDDA to track and engage small, fast-moving aerial targets with precision. This is a senior individual contributor position focused on control theory. **Essential Duties** - Design, implement, and tune the control stack for EDDA's motion system, including actuators and gimbaled subsystems. - Develop and maintain high-bandwidth control loops, including PID, feedforward, and model-predictive control as appropriate to the application. - Develop and maintain state estimation pipelines that fuse inertial measurement unit data, encoder feedback, and perception output into a consistent target track. - Characterize and model mechanical nonlinearities — including backlash, cogging, stiction, inertia, and structural modes — and develop compensation strategies. - Build calibration, logging, and replay tools to support field performance analysis. - Continuously improve slew rate, settling time, and pointing accuracy as the hardware platform evolves. **Requirements** - 6+ years of professional experience in production controls engineering within motion systems, robotics, aerospace, or comparable real-time domains. - Strong command of modern control theory, including state-space methods, observers, and model-predictive control. - Proficiency in Rust, C, or C++ for real-time code, and Python for analysis and tooling. - Demonstrated track record of bringing a complex physical system to production-grade performance. - U.S. citizenship and ability to pass a background check. **Preferred Qualifications** - Experience with gimbal, turret, or pointing-system design. - System identification and model-based control experience. - Hands-on experience with motor drivers, CAN bus, and RTOS targets. - Experience with ROS 2 or DDS middleware in production. - Active security clearance, or eligibility to obtain one. - Prior defense startup experience - Passion for building robots or engineering projects as a hobby **Benefits** - **Meaningful Early Equity:** You aren't just an employee; you are a foundational owner. Your contributions directly drive the value of your stake in the company. - **Direct Roadmap Influence:** Forget the bureaucracy of big defense. You will have a seat at the table, directly shaping our product and technology trajectory from day one. - **Mission-Critical Work:** We don't build for "what if." We build systems the Department of War actively needs to counter immediate, real-world threats. - **The Builder's Playground:** Work in a brand-new lab fully optimized for rapid prototyping, equipped with NVIDIA Jetsons, high-end scopes, and 3-D printers. - **100% Employer-Paid Premiums:** We cover 100% of your medical, dental, and vision insurance premiums and cover 50% of healthcare premiums for your dependents. - **Unlimited PTO:** We value results, not clock-watching. Take the time you need to stay sharp and recharge. - **Zero Red Tape:** You report to the founders. You have the autonomy to make technical decisions that would take months of committee approval at a larger firm. - **Austin-Based Culture:** Join an onsite team in Austin, TX, where we prioritize high-bandwidth collaboration and rapid field-testing. - **Relocation Assistance:** We want the best talent in the room. If you aren't in Austin yet, we’ll help you get here, to make your transition to the Silicon Hills seamless. **About the Interview** 1. Initial Screening with recruiter - 30 min phone call 2. 1st Round Virtual Interview - peer engineer + either Director or CTO (1.5hr via MS Teams) 3. 2nd Round Onsite Interview - CTO + Director + VP + peer(s) (~ 6 hours in-person) \*\*will fly out candidates that are not local 4. Reference checks & offer