Staff Robot Controls Integration Engineer

Job description

At Rhoda AI, we’re building the next generation of generalist intelligent robots. We own the full robotics stack from high-performance hardware and robot systems to the infrastructure and state-of-the-art foundation world models that control our robots. Our robots are designed to be generalists capable of operating in complex, real-world environments and handling long-tail edge cases, made possible by our cutting edge research and end-to-end system design. We've raised over $450M and are investing aggressively in model research, infrastructure, hardware development, and manufacturing scale-up to make generalist robotics a reality. ABOUT THE ROLE We're looking for a Staff Robot Controls Integration Engineer to own the bridge between our control algorithms and real-world hardware — the critical point where physics meets firmware. You'll integrate motor control stacks, real-time communication protocols, and sensing systems into a cohesive, predictable platform that performs reliably in demanding field conditions. This role sits at the intersection of embedded firmware, control theory, and hardware bringup: you'll validate control behavior across the full stack, diagnose timing and performance issues, and drive fixes that make our robots actually work. WHAT YOU'LL DO - Control algorithm integration: Take control strategies from MATLAB/Simulink into real-time firmware on microcontrollers and real-time Linux systems. Validate that implemented behavior matches design intent through dynamic testing and closed-loop validation. - Real-time protocol bringup: Integrate and commission communication buses (CAN, EtherCAT) connecting motor controllers, microcontrollers, and compute hardware. Conduct encoder linearization, sensor calibration, and protocol timing verification to achieve reliable sub-millisecond latency. - Motor and actuator characterization: Work with firmware teams to validate motor performance — cogging torque compensation, field-oriented control tuning, friction modeling. Conduct dynamic testing (Bode analysis, step response) to verify control bandwidth and stability margins. - Hardware-in-the-loop system design: Build and operate test benches that simulate robot dynamics, inject faults, and validate closed-loop behavior before deployment. Create repeatable, automated tests that catch control instability and latency issues early. - Real-time performance profiling: Measure and optimize latency paths across the stack — firmware interrupt handlers, communication pipeline, control loops. Identify and close timing violations that degrade control quality. - Troubleshooting and root-cause analysis: When robots exhibit unexpected behavior in the field, methodically isolate the cause — is it the control law, firmware implementation, communication delay, or hardware? Turn findings into durable fixes working alongside Firmware and Hardware teams. WHAT WE'RE LOOKING FOR - Bachelor's degree in Electrical, Mechanical, or closely related engineering discipline. - 8+ Years of experience working on at least one of the following areas: - Hands-on motor controls: You've implemented or tuned PID loops, field-oriented control, torque control, or trajectory tracking on real hardware. Comfortable reasoning about poles, stability, and bandwidth. - Real-time systems and firmware: You understand interrupt latency, real-time constraints, and the gap between algorithm and implementation. Experience with real-time Linux, microcontroller programming, or RTOS. - Communication protocols: Solid experience with CAN, CAN FD, or EtherCAT — protocol analysis, debugging, timing verification. Familiar with CANoe, Vector tooling, or oscilloscope-based signal capture. - Sensor integration and validation: You've brought up encoders, IMUs, force/torque sensors. Understand aliasing, noise filtering, calibration, and how sensor delay cascades into control performance. - HiL and SIL: You design tests that matter — fault-injection tests that probe stability margins, saturation behavior, and graceful degradation. Experience with Simulink, FPGA platforms, or equivalent. - Control theory: You understand dynamics, Laplace transforms, Bode plots, poles and zeros. Can read a control diagram and reason about closed-loop behavior and system stability. NICE TO HAVE - Experience with EtherCAT, SOEM, Beckhoff hardware, or TwinCAT real-time platforms. - Proficiency in MATLAB/Simulink for modeling, parameter identification, and control-system analysis. - Python or C++ for test automation, firmware tooling, and data post-processing. - Experience with motor characterization: cogging torque analysis, friction modeling, thermal dynamics. - Familiarity with functional safety standards and how control performance ties into safety requirements. - Prior experience supporting fielded systems, turning customer-reported instabilities into durable firmware fixes.