Controls Systems Engineer - Hardware

Job Title: Controls Systems Engineer

Department: Hardware

Employment Type: Full-Time

Location: Houston, TX

Travel: 10%

Who We Are

Persona AI is building humanoid robots for the most demanding environments in heavy industry — shipyards, steel mills, fabrication facilities, and offshore platforms — performing welding, grinding, maintenance, inspection, and material-handling work that is dangerous, physically demanding, and increasingly difficult to staff.

We are backed by leading strategic and financial investors and engaged with global industrial leaders across Korea, Japan, the United States, and Singapore. Korea is the center of gravity for our early commercial strategy, anchored by relationships with the world’s leading shipbuilders and steelmakers. Our work spans both the robot platform itself and the systems, partners, and playbooks required to deploy it at scale.

Why Join Persona AI?

• We offer competitive compensation, a performance-based bonus, 99% employer covered medical benefits, early-stage equity, competitive PTO, and a company-wide paid winter break between December 24th and January 2nd.

• You’ll shape technology that’s redefining the possibilities of robotics and human interaction.

• Work alongside passionate teammates who value creativity, and continuous learning.

About the Role

We're looking for a Controls Systems Engineer to design, implement, and tune the real-time control loops that make our actuators and joints move precisely, safely, and reliably. This is the layer that sits closest to the hardware — motor drive, current and torque control, position/velocity control, and the embedded software that runs it on real silicon, in real time, on a real robot.

You'll work hand-in-hand with electrical and mechanical engineers to understand the actuator hardware you're controlling, and with higher-level autonomy and motion-planning engineers to make sure your control loops deliver on what the robot needs to do. We're open to candidates from either a mechanical or electrical engineering background, as long as you have strong controls fundamentals and are comfortable getting hands-on with embedded hardware and real actuators on the bench

What You Will Be Doing

• Design, implement, and tune low-level control loops (current, torque, velocity, and position control) for electromechanical actuators.

• Write and optimize embedded firmware that runs these control loops in real time on microcontrollers or DSPs.

• Model actuator and drivetrain dynamics (motors, gearboxes, transmissions, sensors) to inform controller design and tuning.

• Implement and tune classical control techniques (PID, cascaded loops, feedforward, state observers) and evaluate more advanced approaches where warranted.

• Work with electrical engineers to define current sensing, gate drive, encoder/sensor feedback, and other hardware needed to close the loop well.

• Bring up new actuator hardware on the bench: instrument it, characterize its behavior, and get first control loops running.

• Debug control performance issues using scopes, logic analyzers, and data logging — distinguishing hardware, firmware, and tuning problems.

• Collaborate with motion planning, autonomy, and software teams to ensure low-level control behavior supports the robot's higher-level tasks.

• Document control architectures, tuning procedures, and known limitations so other engineers can build on your work.

What We Are Looking For:

• Bachelor's, Master's, or PhD degree in Mechanical Engineering, Electrical Engineering, or a related field.

• 5+ years of experience designing and implementing low-level motor or actuator control systems (less with an advanced degree focused on controls).

• Strong fundamentals in classical controls: PID, cascaded control loops, feedforward, and frequency-domain or state-space analysis.

• Experience with time synchronized torque control of motors (BLDC/PMSM, FOC, current/torque control) or other electromechanical actuator force control.

• Experience working with encoders, strain gauges, or other analog or digital sensors.

• Hands-on embedded firmware experience in C or C++ on microcontrollers or DSPs, including real-time constraints and interrupt-driven code.

• Comfortable designing and using filters in time critical, low-latency domains.

• Comfortable modeling and analyzing dynamic systems (MATLAB/Simulink, Python, or similar) to design and validate controllers before and after hardware bring-up.

• Lab fluency: comfortable with a scope, current probes, and data logging to characterize hardware and debug control performance.

• Strong analytical and problem-solving skills, with the tenacity to track down issues that span hardware, firmware, and tuning.

• A friendly, collaborative mindset, strong communication skills, and excitement to work hands-on in a dynamic, supportive team environment; design without ego.

Bonus Skills:

• Experience controlling actuators for robotics, exoskeletons, or other articulated mechanical systems.

• Familiarity with real-time operating systems (RTOS) and deterministic scheduling.

• Experience with EtherCAT, CAN-FD, or other industrial/robotics communication protocols used for control.

• Exposure to state estimation techniques (Kalman filters, observers) for sensor fusion at the actuator level.

• Experience with strain-wave, cycloidal, or planetary transmissions and their impact on control design.

• Familiarity with functional safety standards (IEC 61508, ISO 13849, ISO 26262) as applied to motor control systems.

• Experience working closely with electrical engineers on driver hardware (gate drive, current sensing) and mechanical engineers on transmission design.

• Comfortable reviewing schematics and PCB layouts well enough to debug control hardware issues.

Persona AI is an Equal Opportunity Employer.

All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, sexual orientation, gender identity, age, disability, veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by applicable federal, state, or local law.