{"id":2313586,"url":"https://alion.io/job/unmannd-com-lead-controls-engineer-uavs","title":"Lead Controls Engineer (UAVs)","company":{"id":3863231,"name":"unmannd.com","domain":"unmannd.com","url":"https://alion.io/company/unmannd","size_band":null,"is_staffing_agency":false,"employer_type":"direct","is_intermediary":false,"listed_via":null,"ats_vendor":"Zoho Recruit","truth_index":{"grade":"B","score":75,"open_postings":6,"ghost_share":0,"stale_share":1,"repost_share":0,"time_to_fill_p50_days":null,"computed_at":"2026-10-13T05:45:00Z"}},"role":"Robotics","role_family":"Robotics","seniority":"lead","employment_type":"full_time","work_mode":"on_site","remote_scope":null,"remote_scope_basis":null,"remote_working_hours":null,"hiring_geo_confidence":"structured","locations":["Bengaluru, India"],"countries":["IN"],"hiring_countries":[],"hiring_countries_total":0,"salary":null,"salary_estimate":{"min_usd":26000,"max_usd":70000,"period":"year","method":"global_role_cell_scaled_by_country","sample_n":41},"experience_years_min":6,"visa_sponsorship":false,"relocation_package":false,"has_equity":true,"technologies":[{"name":"AirSim","optional":false},{"name":"ArduPilot","optional":false},{"name":"C++","optional":false},{"name":"Gazebo","optional":false},{"name":"MATLAB","optional":false},{"name":"Model Predictive Control","optional":false},{"name":"Python","optional":false},{"name":"RTOS","optional":false},{"name":"Sensor Fusion","optional":false},{"name":"Simulink","optional":false}],"status":"live","first_seen_at":"2025-08-06T00:00:00Z","employer_posted_date":"2025-08-06","last_verified_at":"2026-10-14T00:45:11Z","board_verified":true,"closed_at":null,"days_open":434,"trust":{"level":"stale","repost_count":0,"flags":["stale"],"days_open":433},"description":"Role Summary As Lead Controls Engineer, you will own the control systems architecture, guide algorithm development (attitude, trajectory, and mission-level control), and lead a team of controls engineers. This role combines technical depth in flight dynamics and control theory with leadership responsibilities, including mentoring, roadmap development, and cross-team collaboration with firmware, autonomy, and systems integration teams. Roles andResponsibilities Control System Design & Development Architect, implement, and optimize control systems for attitude, altitude, velocity, and trajectory tracking. Develop both low-level controllers (motor commands, stabilization) and high-level controllers (trajectory following, waypoint tracking). Model and analyze UAV dynamics under variable payloads and flight conditions. Explore and implement advanced control methods (e.g., LQR, MPC, adaptive control, fault-tolerant control). Continuous Improvement & Research Stay updated with the state of the art in control systems, UAV dynamics, and adaptive/autonomous control methods. Drive innovation by evaluating new algorithms (e.g., AI/ML-enhanced control strategies). Ensure documentation, safety standards, and compliance with UAV regulatory requirements. Simulation, Testing & Tuning Lead the use of simulation environments (MATLAB/Simulink, Gazebo, AirSim, SITL/HIL) for validation. Define test cases and metrics for control performance, robustness, and safety. Oversee parameter tuning and log analysis during lab and field flight testing. Cross-Functional Collaboration Work closely with: Firmware engineers to ensure low-level control implementation on embedded hardware. Autonomy engineers to connect planners with trajectory controllers. Perception & sensor fusion teams to leverage accurate state estimation for stable control. Flight test team to validate and iterate in real-world conditions.\nRequirements\nQualifications Master’s or Ph.D. in Aerospace Engineering, Controls, Robotics, or related field. 6-10 years of experience in control systems for robotics or UAVs. Strong expertise in: Classical control (PID, cascaded loops). Modern control (LQR, MPC, nonlinear/adaptive control). State estimation and dynamics modeling. Proficiency in MATLAB/Simulink, C++, and Python. Hands-on experience with PX4, ArduPilot, or custom autopilot stacks. Proven experience with real-world tuning and analyzing UAV flight logs.\nPreferred\nQualifications Experience leading small teams or projects. Familiarity with fault-tolerant and redundant control architectures. Knowledge of certifiable RTOS environments (SafeRTOS, INTEGRITY). Hands-on flight testing of UAVs (quadrotors, VTOLs, fixed-wing). Contributions to control-related research, publications, or open-source projects.\nBenefits\nWhat\nWe Offer Technical leadership role at the heart of Unmannd’s flight systems. Direct impact on real-world UAV performance and reliability. Access to real hardware platforms, flight ranges, and simulations. Collaborative startup culture with opportunities to grow into Head of Controls / Autonomy. Competitive salary and equity options.","description_format":"text","description_chars":3128,"description_truncated":false,"requirements":{"experience_years_min":6,"management_years_min":null,"team_size_min":null,"manages_managers":false,"education":{"level":"master","optional":false},"security_clearance":false,"languages":[]},"benefits":["Equity"],"hiring_locations":[],"hiring_excludes":[],"relocation_offered":false,"industries":["Logistics"],"lifecycle":[{"event":"open","at":"2026-10-12T02:53:23Z"}],"visa":[],"liveness":{"score":6,"band":"cold","label":"Long shot","p_open":1,"p_active":0.207,"p_room":0.28,"age_days":433,"expected_fill_days":23,"reasons":["conf:0","win:tail","crowd:"],"computed_at":"2026-10-13T05:45:00Z"},"pay":null,"html_url":"https://alion.io/job/unmannd-com-lead-controls-engineer-uavs","json_url":"https://alion.io/job/unmannd-com-lead-controls-engineer-uavs.json","meta":{"generated_at":"2026-10-14T01:26:50Z","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":2135,"day_limit":null,"remaining_today":null,"minute_limit":300,"resets_at":"2026-10-15T00:00:00Z"}},"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":3863231},"rest":"https://alion.io/mcp/rest/get_company?id=3863231"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=company.slices&for=job%2Funmannd-com-lead-controls-engineer-uavs"},{"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%2Funmannd-com-lead-controls-engineer-uavs"},{"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%2Funmannd-com-lead-controls-engineer-uavs"},{"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/unmannd-com-lead-controls-engineer-uavs\", \"note\": \"what you need it for\"}"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=company.verify&for=job%2Funmannd-com-lead-controls-engineer-uavs"}]}