Senior Robotics Controls Engineer, Sanctuary AI

• Sanctuary, a world leader in building AI-based control systems for humanoid robots, is looking to hire a skilled and motivated Robotics Controls Engineer
• The best candidates for this role have excellent background in control theory for robotics, programming skills, hands-on experience implementing control algorithms on hardware, as well as writing interfaces for robotics systems
• MS or Ph.D. in robotics or a related field (Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, etc.) or equivalent industry experience
• Demonstrated experience writing software for robot control on hardware
• Controls experience working with rigid multi-body robotic systems
• Software development skills; able to write efficient, scalable, and maintainable code in C++ and Python for robot control
• Experience with at least one kinematics and dynamics library for robotics (e.g., Pinocchio, Drake, Mujoco, etc.)
• Strong understanding of ROS2
• Experience working on complex software stacks as part of a team
• Familiarity with documentation and project management tools such as Confluence and Jira is an asset
• Knowledge of ros2_control is an asset
• Experience in trajectory optimization, planning and optimal control is an asset
• Experience using real time solvers for a range of convex and non-convex problems (specific interest in QPs, SQPs, MIPs, and SDPs) is an asset
• Experience with off-the-shelf robotic hardware is an asset
• Experience in reinforcement learning for control is an asset
• Above all else, a consistently positive attitude and a willingness to do whatever it takes to create robust solutions to mission objectives
• Successful candidates will be a proponent of personal responsibility for themselves and their teammates
• Empathetic listener with conflict resolution capabilities
• Consistent bias for action, communication, and interpersonal savvy
• Self-motivated and able to solve problems independently
• Mission driven and passionate about bringing human-like intelligence to machines

• The Robotics Controls Engineer is a crucial part of our team, supporting development and improvement of our control software stack
• You’ll contribute to the codebase that links our motion control stack to the real-time and embedded systems
• Write, document, deploy, and maintain software for robot motion control
• Understand the current control software stack and propose incremental improvements
• Develop intuitive APIs that balance the needs of different stakeholders
• Bring hands-on experience of software and hardware debugging of complex robotics systems
• Gain experience designing control systems that support different input sources (e.g., teleoperation, learned policies, motion planners)
• Effectively evaluates the impact of different solution methods on system performance, particularly with respect to timing and resource constraints

Total funding: $88.5m

Sanctuary has set itself the ambitious task of developing human-like intelligence in general-purpose robots, intending to complement the human labor market - and eventually helping humans settle in outer space. Its robots are modelled on the size and shape of humans, and their cognitive architecture is based on the subsystems of the human brain. The hope is that this puts the so-far elusive artificial general intelligence (AGI) in closer reach.