Clera

Senior Robotics Engineer, Controls

San Francisco · Full-time

Clera

At a glance

Senior Robotics Engineer, Controls is an open full-time job at Clera (San Francisco · On-site).

CompanyClera
LocationSan Francisco · On-site
TypeFull-time
DepartmentEngineering
PayCreate a free account to see the pay
Posted2026-11-06
Found onAshby

About this job

About the Role

Join a small engineering team developing autonomous directed-energy systems in the defense sector. As a senior individual contributor, you will own the precision motion control stack, helping deliver reliable pointing and tracking performance on real hardware.

What You'll Do

  • Architect and tune precision pointing and tracking control loops, including closed-loop sensor-to-actuator control at hundreds of hertz.
  • Develop state estimation and sensor fusion using IMU, encoder, and vision feedback.
  • Identify and model gimbal, mount, and actuator dynamics, then compensate for resonance, friction, backlash, and saturation.
  • Build simulation and hardware-in-the-loop infrastructure to develop and validate controls.
  • Characterize system performance on hardware and in field tests, and document controls standards and tuning practices.

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.
  • Strong grounding in classical and state-space controls, including LQR and MPC, plus practical state estimation using Kalman-family or complementary filters.
  • Experience with system identification, frequency-domain tuning, structural resonance compensation, and closing the simulation-to-hardware gap.
  • Modern C++ for real-time control, and Python or MATLAB/Simulink for modeling and analysis.
  • Direct experience with servo drives, brushless motors, encoders, and IMUs, as well as real-time latency and jitter constraints.
  • Comfort working across mechanical, electrical, and software engineering; gimbal, precision-pointing, tracking, or defense systems experience is relevant.

Compensation & Benefits

Visa sponsorship is not available.

Location

On-site in San Francisco, California, United States.

Questions about this job

Where is the Senior Robotics Engineer, Controls job at Clera?

San Francisco.

What does the Senior Robotics Engineer, Controls job at Clera pay?

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Is this a full-time or part-time job?

The listing describes it as Full-time.

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