Motion Control Engineer Jobs in California (NOW HIRING)

Foundry Robotics is building an AI-native robotics manufacturing company focused on deploying advanced assembly and production capability for leading robotics companies and national-security-critical hardware. Basically, we’re building robots that build robots.

Factory OS is building software that runs factories. Our platform spans cloud backends, on-prem services, and edge devices deployed on the factory floor. The operators, supervisors, and managers who use our tools need interfaces that are fast, reliable, and intuitive—even when network conditions aren’t perfect and the environment is demanding.

The Senior Robotics Control Engineer will design and develop real-time control systems for advanced robotic manipulators, with a focus on torque control, motion planning, and state estimation. This role involves building optimization-based control algorithms, integrating sensor fusion across multiple sensing modalities, and driving controller performance from simulation through hardware validation. Working closely with the Autonomy, Hardware, and Testing teams, the engineer will develop scalable, high-performance robotics solutions that enable precise, reliable, and intelligent manipulation in real-world environments.

Key Responsibilities:

• Design and develop real-time C++ code control of robotic arms, with emphasis on torque control and low impedance.

• Build model-based planning and control components: trajectory optimization, inverse dynamics, and whole-arm motion control.

• Develop state estimation for real-time manipulation, fusing encoders, torque sensors, force-torque sensing, and IMUs.

• Own controller performance end-to-end: simulation validation, hardware bring-up, tuning, and regression testing.

• Design scalable solutions that integrate with Autonomy, Hardware, and Testing systems at Foundry.

• 5+ years of experience implementing optimization-based multi-DOF control algorithms (inverse dynamics, trajectory optimization) on real robotic systems

• Experience building state estimation solutions for real-time robotic systems such as (EKFs, Particle Filters, Factor Graphs, etc.)

• Experience with various sensors (encoders, torque sensors, force-torque sensors, IMUs) and sensor fusion

• Deep understanding of spatial kinematics, dynamics, and related mathematical concepts

• A proven track record iterating on complex multi-DOF systems, with emphasis on torque control and low impedance

• Fluency in modern C++ and Python

Additional Qualifications:

• MPC / receding-horizon control on real systems

• Contact-rich manipulation, grasping, or force-controlled assembly

• Rigid-body dynamics libraries (Pinocchio, Drake, MuJoCo) and optimization solvers

• ROS 2 and real-time Linux

• Experience with Machine Learning as it relates to control or state estimation (learned dynamics models, residual policies, imitation learning)

Why Join Us?

This is one of the only places where world-class manufacturing operators, mechanical engineers, robotics researchers, and software engineers sit in the same room — building production systems together.

We are committed to being deeply embedded in the U.S. industrial base. Our focus is simple: build adaptive robotic assembly systems that make American manufacturing scalable, resilient, and competitive again.

The base salary range for this full-time position, based in San Francisco, is: $150,000—$250,000 USD

Compensation packages at Foundry Robotics for eligible roles include base salary, equity, and benefits. The range displayed on each job posting reflects the minimum and maximum target for new hire salaries for the position, determined by work location and additional factors, including job-related skills, experience, interview performance, and relevant education or training. Foundry Robotics employees in eligible roles are also granted equity based compensation, subject to Board of Director approval. You’ll also receive benefits including, but not limited to: Comprehensive health, dental and vision coverage, and generous PTO.