{"id":185571,"url":"https://alion.io/job/humanoid-senior-low-level-control-engineer-end-effectors","title":"Senior Low-level Control Engineer - End-Effectors","company":{"id":35230,"name":"Humanoid","domain":"thehumanoid.ai","url":"https://alion.io/company/thehumanoid","size_band":"201-500","is_staffing_agency":false,"employer_type":"direct","is_intermediary":false,"listed_via":null,"ats_vendor":"Ashby","truth_index":{"grade":"B","score":78,"open_postings":10,"ghost_share":0,"stale_share":0.9,"repost_share":0,"time_to_fill_p50_days":58,"computed_at":"2026-10-17T05:46:00Z"}},"role":"Robotics","role_family":"Robotics","seniority":"senior","employment_type":"full_time","work_mode":"on_site","remote_scope":null,"remote_scope_basis":null,"remote_working_hours":null,"hiring_geo_confidence":"structured","locations":["London, United Kingdom"],"countries":["GB"],"hiring_countries":[],"hiring_countries_total":0,"salary":null,"salary_estimate":{"min_usd":85000,"max_usd":204000,"period":"year","method":"global_role_cell_scaled_by_country","sample_n":243},"experience_years_min":null,"visa_sponsorship":false,"relocation_package":false,"has_equity":true,"technologies":[{"name":"C++","optional":false},{"name":"EtherCAT","optional":false},{"name":"Linux","optional":false},{"name":"ROS2","optional":false},{"name":"RTOS","optional":false},{"name":"Isaac Sim","optional":true},{"name":"MATLAB","optional":true},{"name":"MuJoCo","optional":true},{"name":"ros2_control","optional":true},{"name":"Simulink","optional":true}],"status":"live","first_seen_at":"2026-08-23T14:01:37Z","employer_posted_date":"2026-08-23","last_verified_at":"2026-10-18T07:20:15Z","board_verified":true,"closed_at":null,"days_open":55,"trust":{"level":"ok","repost_count":null,"flags":[],"days_open":55},"description":"Here at Humanoid, we believe in a future where robots amplify human potential. That’s why we’ve set out on a mission to build the world’s most capable, commercially-scalable, and safe humanoid robots. We’re bringing that mission to life with HMND-01 - our rapidly developed humanoid platform being deployed in real industrial environments - and we’re growing the team to take it even further.\nAbout the Role\nWe are looking for a Senior Low-level Control Engineer to join our Control Team in London, focusing on control development and integration for our end-effectors.\nYou will design, implement and validate actuator- and joint-level controllers and grasp-level behaviours across a family of end-effector variants - parallel and multi-finger grippers, vacuum and suction tooling, and purpose-built tooling for specific customer tasks. Each variant brings different actuation, different sensing and, critically, different transmission mechanisms: geared direct drives, cable- and tendon-driven routings, differential and coupled linkages, and underactuated designs where few actuators must produce adaptive, compliant grasping across many degrees of freedom.\nThe ideal candidate has a solid background in control theory, strong software engineering skills in C++, and comfort working from real-time embedded control up through kinematics/dynamics and hardware debugging. You will work closely with mechanical and hardware engineers - early enough in the design cycle that your input shapes actuation and transmission choices rather than merely inheriting them.\nWhat You'll Do\nLow-Level Control Development:\nTune and validate actuator- and joint-space control loops (PID, feedforward, impedance/admittance, observers, state feedback) for multi-DoF end-effectors in ROS2.\n\nDevelop grasp-level behaviours: grasp force control, compliant closing, slip detection and correction, and adaptive grasping on underactuated grippers.\n\nImplement safety and fault-handling mechanisms - thermal and over-current protection, stall and jam detection, grip-loss detection, safe behaviour on fault.\n\nTransmission Mechanisms, Modeling & System Identification:\nBuild and identify models of actuators, transmissions and mechanisms - geared, cable/tendon-driven, differential, coupled and underactuated - including compliance, friction, backlash, hysteresis, cable stretch and pretension effects.\n\nOwn the joint-to-actuator abstraction for these mechanisms and the correct exposure of joint versus actuator state through the control stack.\n\nContribute directly to transmission mechanism design: work with mechanical engineers on routing, reduction ratios, DoF coupling and underactuation strategy, bringing the controllability and observability consequences of each option into the conversation early.\n\nSensor & Hardware Integration:\nIntegrate and calibrate end-effector sensing (F/T, tactile, encoders, temperature/current, vacuum feedback) with real-time acquisition across the control stack.\n\nHands-on bring-up and debugging of new end-effectors, including test-stand work and vendor-supplied units.\n\nCross-Disciplinary Collaboration:\nClose the loop with mechanical/electronics engineers across sites on actuation, transmission and sensing requirements.\n\nWork with data collection, applications and deployment teams so end-effectors work reliably in real use.\n\nWhat We're Looking For\nShipped real-time-safe, object-oriented C++ control software running on real hardware.\n\nTuned and validated controllers on physical actuators, including sensor calibration and bring-up.\n\nModelled, identified and controlled through real mechanical transmissions - gearing, cables/tendons, differentials, coupled linkages or underactuated mechanisms - and dealt with the compliance, friction and backlash they introduce.\n\nWorked on end-effectors or comparable multi-DoF mechanisms, including grasp control and supporting sensing.\n\nDebugged at the fieldbus and OS layer: e.g. EtherCAT or CAN, on an RTOS or real-time Linux.\n\nStrong control theory foundation (linear/nonlinear control, stability, observers, state estimation, feedback/feedforward, filtering, frequency-domain analysis) applied to multi-DoF mechanisms via Jacobians, numerical IK/FK, and URDF/Xacro.\n\nNice to have:\nBLDC motor control (commutation, current control, torque optimization).\n\nros2_control internals (hardware interfaces, controllers, controller_manager, plugins, lifecycle nodes).\n\nTendon- or cable-driven mechanisms specifically, including pretension management, routing friction and wear behaviour.\n\nTactile sensing integration; vacuum and suction tooling, including multi-cup arrays and grip-loss handling.\n\nSystem identification toolchains and simulation environments (MATLAB/Simulink, MuJoCo, Isaac Sim).\n\nWhat We Offer\nCompetitive equity: stock options with meaningful upside as we scale.\n\n30+ paid days off, including 23 days of annual leave, all UK bank holidays, and additional company closure days (including Christmas-New Year shutdown).\n\nPrivate healthcare, including virtual and in-person care.\n\nPension scheme with 8% total contribution (5% employee, 3% employer) on full earnings.\n\nFree daily breakfast, catered lunch, and snacks in-office.\n\nWork at the frontier - collaborate daily with world-class engineers, researchers, and product experts building the next generation of AI and humanoid robotics.\n\nReal ownership - direct access to founding leadership, meaningful input on product direction, and the ability to drive key initiatives from day one.","description_format":"text","description_chars":5506,"description_truncated":false,"requirements":{"experience_years_min":null,"management_years_min":null,"team_size_min":null,"manages_managers":false,"education":null,"security_clearance":false,"languages":[]},"benefits":["Annual leave","Equity","Stock options"],"hiring_locations":[],"hiring_excludes":[],"relocation_offered":false,"industries":["Robotics AI","Logistics & Warehouse Robotics","Industrial Robotics","Humanoid Robots"],"lifecycle":[{"event":"open","at":"2026-09-01T15:15:09Z"}],"visa":[],"liveness":{"score":43,"band":"fade","label":"Fading","p_open":1,"p_active":0.57,"p_room":0.75,"age_days":54,"expected_fill_days":58,"reasons":["conf:0","stale_co","velocity","win:late"],"computed_at":"2026-10-17T05:46:00Z"},"pay":null,"html_url":"https://alion.io/job/humanoid-senior-low-level-control-engineer-end-effectors","json_url":"https://alion.io/job/humanoid-senior-low-level-control-engineer-end-effectors.json","meta":{"generated_at":"2026-10-18T08:20:54Z","cache_seconds":300,"methodology":"https://alion.io/methodology","terms":"https://alion.io/terms","contact":"https://alion.io/contact","api":"https://alion.io/developers","about":"Alion is a live layer of people, companies and AI agents: who they are, whether they are real and active right now, what they do and how to work with them, readable by people and by agents and paid per call.","catalog":"https://alion.io/catalog.json","usage":{"tier":"crawler_verified","counted_by":"address","units_charged":1,"used_today":12542,"day_limit":null,"remaining_today":null,"minute_limit":300,"resets_at":"2026-10-19T00:00:00Z"}},"offers":[{"id":"company.slices","title":"One company in depth, by slice","status":"live","price":{"credits":0.02,"usd":0.002,"plus_per_slice":{"credits":0.05,"usd":0.005}},"unit":"per company, plus each slice with data","note":"the employer in depth","call":{"mcp_tool":"get_company","arguments":{"id":35230},"rest":"https://alion.io/mcp/rest/get_company?id=35230"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=company.slices&for=job%2Fhumanoid-senior-low-level-control-engineer-end-effectors"},{"id":"market.stats","title":"A market slice: pay, demand and time to fill","status":"live","price":{"credits":1,"usd":0.1},"unit":"per slice","note":"pay, demand and time to fill for this role and place","call":{"mcp_tool":"market_stats"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=market.stats&for=job%2Fhumanoid-senior-low-level-control-engineer-end-effectors"},{"id":"job.search","title":"Open jobs by role, technology, place, pay and visa","status":"live","price":{"credits":0.02,"usd":0.002},"unit":"per posting in a list","note":"similar open postings","call":{"mcp_tool":"search_jobs"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=job.search&for=job%2Fhumanoid-senior-low-level-control-engineer-end-effectors"},{"id":"company.verify","title":"Is this company real and active right now","status":"pilot","price":null,"unit":"per company","request":{"url":"https://alion.io/catalog/request","method":"POST","body":"{\"offer\": \"company.verify\", \"for\": \"job/humanoid-senior-low-level-control-engineer-end-effectors\", \"note\": \"what you need it for\"}"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=company.verify&for=job%2Fhumanoid-senior-low-level-control-engineer-end-effectors"}]}