Robotics Controls Engineer - Miso Robotics

MISO develops technology that elevates human lives in the commercial kitchen.

We’re engineering production-ready robotic systems that tightly integrate perception, real-time decision making, and electromechanical controls to automate the most dangerous, least desirable tasks in food preparation. That means building software that understands the physical world as it actually behaves, and hardware that can execute precisely in the face of chaos. Success is measured in uptime, throughput, and trust from our customers, not demos.

Our flagship platform, Flippy, is already operating in high-volume restaurant kitchens across seven states. Zippy, our Kitchen Intelligence software centralizes all operational data in our broader ecosystem, expanding the role of AI enabled autonomy in real-world operations. Backed by industry leaders, including Ecolab (NYSE: ECL), Miso combines the stability of a proven commercial product with the technical depth and ambition of a company passionately innovating to solve foundational problems in robotics and restaurant operations.

If you’re excited by hard constraints, real customers, and the challenge of making software and machines perform reliably where failure isn’t an option, you’ll find meaningful problems to work on here.

The Role

Miso Robotics is building kitchen robots that operate in the real world, every day, at scale. As a Robotics Controls Engineer, you will design, develop, and improve the motion control systems behind Miso Robotics’ Flippy robotic arm while helping build the next generation of automated cooking robots.

You’ll work on precise and reliable robot motion, including trajectory planning, control algorithms, sensor feedback, simulation, and real-world performance. Your code will move a 6-DOF robot that's cooking food for real customers. You’ll take ideas from simulation and prototyping through testing, debugging, and deployment on real hardware, working closely with mechanical, electrical, perception, and software engineers to turn robotics R&D into robust, production-ready systems.

This role is a strong fit for an early-career engineer who wants to work hands-on with robots and grow quickly across controls, motion planning, system integration, and deployment. We’re looking for someone with a strong engineering foundation, a startup mindset, and a drive to push the capabilities of robotic automation. You’ll work onsite in Miso’s Pasadena Robotics lab.

What You’ll Do

• Develop and improve motion behaviors for a 6-DOF robotic arm mounted on a linear axis, including end-effector and gripper control.
• Develop kinematic and dynamic models of the robotic arm, including forward/inverse kinematics, Jacobians, and gravity/force compensation.
• Implement trajectory generation and motion planning for smooth, precise, and collision-free robot motion.
• Tune PID, impedance, force/torque, and other control loops to achieve required positioning accuracy, repeatability, and dynamic performance.
• Develop motion sequences for cooking operations such as picking, placing, stirring, flipping, dispensing, scraping, and transferring food.
• Integrate motion control with computer vision, object detection, and sensor feedback to enable closed-loop robotic behaviors.
• Develop real-time responses to changing conditions, such as food position, unexpected obstacles, and variations in cooking processes.
• Interface motion-control software with motor drives, encoders, force/torque sensors, safety systems, and other robot hardware.
• Optimize robot motion for cycle time, energy consumption, smoothness, and mechanical wear while maintaining cooking quality.
• Implement collision detection, joint limits, workspace limits, velocity/acceleration limits, and other motion safety mechanisms.
• Develop fault detection, recovery, and safe-stop behaviors for abnormal sensor, actuator, or communication conditions.
• Develop and maintain the real-time software architecture connecting high-level task planning with low-level servo control.
• Perform simulation, hardware-in-the-loop testing, and real-world validation of motion-control algorithms.
• Analyze robot performance using telemetry and logs to identify positioning errors, oscillations, latency, mechanical issues, and control instability.
• Calibrate robot joints, tools/end-effectors, coordinate frames, and sensors to maintain accurate spatial positioning.
• Develop automated motion-control test procedures and regression tests for new software and hardware releases.
• Collaborate with mechanical, electrical, perception, AI/ML, and application software engineers to integrate the complete robotic system.
• Improve robustness of the system to real-world restaurant conditions, including heat, grease, vibration, food debris, variable loads, and high duty cycles.
• Support robot installations, field deployments, and on-site system tuning at customer locations, with occasional travel required.

Requirements

• BS Robotics Engineer / Control Systems (or similar)
• 2+ years of hands-on experience developing robotics or motion-control systems, including work with robotic arms or other multi-axis mechanisms.
• Strong understanding of robot kinematics, including forward/inverse kinematics, coordinate frames, Jacobians, and workspace analysis.
• Use of AI coding tools such as Copilot, Cursor, and Claude
• Developing motion-control algorithms, including trajectory generation, PID/control loops, velocity and acceleration control, and motion profiling.
• Strong C++ and/or Python programming skills for developing and debugging robotic control software.
• Experience with ROS/ROS 2 or comparable robotics middleware, including integration of sensors, actuators, controllers, and higher-level robotic behaviors.
• Experience working with robotic hardware, including servo motors, motor controllers, encoders, force/torque sensors, and other feedback systems.
• Understanding of real-time robotic systems, including control-loop timing, latency, synchronization, communication protocols, and deterministic behavior.
• Integrating perception and sensor feedback into robot motion, such as using cameras, force sensors, or other sensors for closed-loop control.
• Strong debugging and system-integration skills, with the ability to diagnose problems across mechanical, electrical, firmware, and software components and validate solutions on physical robots.

Desired Multipliers

• Experience with 6+ DOF robotic arms
• Use of advanced AI and ML models applied to Robotics systems and motion control
• Collision detection and robot safety systems
• Motion planning frameworks such as MoveIt
• Gazebo, Isaac Sim, or other robot simulation
• Force/impedance control
• Experience optimizing cycle time and repeatability
• Experience deploying robots in industrial or commercial environments
• Familiarity with functional safety / OSHA-oriented robotic safety practices
• Experience with high-duty-cycle robotic systems operating around heat, grease, vibration, and variable loads

Compensation

$100,000-$125,000 per year + Benefits

The stated compensation range reflects the targeted base salary range for candidates residing in the Los Angeles Metro area and does not include additional compensation or benefits. If your salary requirements fall outside this range, we still encourage you to apply.