# Controls Engineer at Physical Intelligence

Controls Engineer at Physical Intelligence in San Francisco. On-site, full-time. Posted January 7, 2026.

- Company: Physical Intelligence
- Location: San Francisco
- Workplace: On-site
- Job type: Full-time
- Posted: 2026-01-07
- Apply: https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/physicalintelligence/c8f9e9aa-8801-4916-9b1f-2c0bd5f072f9/application
- Source: https://jobmagic.ai/jobs/controls-engineer-physical-intelligence-81kvmm

## Requirements

- Background in manipulation or mobile robotic platforms
- Exposure to robot learning or integrating learned policies into control stacks
- Ability to design or refine custom actuator or sensor hardware

## Description

As a Controls Engineer, you will design and implement the algorithms that make PI’s robots behave predictably, smoothly, and safely under varied and uncertain conditions.

**The Team**
The Controls team builds and tunes the core feedback and model-based algorithms, real-time loops, simulations, and actuator/sensor subsystems that make PI’s robots stable and reliable. They work closely with research, hardware, and operations to debug complex system behaviors and ensure our learning-based systems operate under strict real-time constraints in unpredictable environments.

**In This Role You Will**

- **Design & implement control algorithms: **PID, LQR, MPC, inverse dynamics, and feedforward controllers.

- **Build & validate models: **Create and refine physical and inverse dynamics models for simulation and control design.

- **Develop real-time loops: **Write and optimize runtime control loops, including neural-network-driven control.

- **Own robotic bring-up: **Integrate and tune arms, mobile bases, teleop systems, and full-body platforms.

- **Debug complex system behaviors: **Diagnose and resolve hardware/software/runtime issues using first-principles reasoning.

- **Build sensor/actuator subsystems: **Work with embedded systems, drivers, and communication protocols (CAN, SPI, I2C, Ethernet).

- **Partner cross-functionally:** Work with researchers, platform engineers, and operators to ensure stable, predictable real-world behavior.

- **Support R&D: **Prototype configurations, collect structured datasets, and iterate directly with researchers.

**What We Hope You’ll Bring**

- Deep understanding of model-based control algorithms and inverse dynamics

- Ability to validate control approaches in simulation and translate them to real hardware

- Proficiency in Python and C++, including firmware-adjacent development

- Skill in writing and tuning real-time control loops

- Hands-on capability to debug electromechanical systems end-to-end

- Familiarity with embedded communication protocols (CAN, SPI, I2C, Ethernet)

- Clear communication with researchers, hardware teams, and operators

- A structured, collaborative approach to solving complex system issues

**Bonus Points If You Have**

- Background in manipulation or mobile robotic platforms

- Exposure to robot learning or integrating learned policies into control stacks

- Ability to design or refine custom actuator or sensor hardware

Pursuant to the San Francisco Fair Chance Ordinance, we will consider for employment qualified applicants with arrest and conviction records.