Lead Control Systems Engineer

🤖 About Us

We build robots that operate where no other robots can.

Born out of NASA JPL's work on the DARPA Subterranean Challenge, Revolute Robotics is redefining where inspection and surveillance robots can access. Our mission is to keep humans out of harm’s way using an entirely new class of robots—enabling safer, smarter data collection across for industrial inspections, area surveillance, and first responders.

We’re gearing up for field pilots with major industrial customers, we’re backed by NSF, DoD, and top VCs, and are 1 of 10 companies selected to spend a week with Jeff Bezos at MARS 2024.

⚙️ The Role

We’re looking for a senior-level control systems engineer to help us push the boundaries of what hybrid land/air robots can do. You’ll own and evolve our control architecture—tuning PIDs, fusing sensor data, and inventing entirely new operating modes that haven’t existed before.

This isn’t a research job or a simulation role. You’ll be in the field testing and breaking things regularly, iterating quickly, and guiding our team through ambiguity and uncertainty as we deploy our robot in places where no other robots can access.

🔍 What We’re Looking For

• Deep expertise in drone control (ideally in complex or indoor environments)
• High proficiency in C++, Python, MATLAB/Simulink, and Lua
• Fluency with PX4/ArduPilot, QGroundControl, BetaFlight, MAVROS, and ROS
• Experience with state-space modeling, hardware-in-the-loop (HIL) testing, and model-based predictive control (MPC)
• Able to design and implement novel control strategies, not just tweak existing ones
• Experience with sensor integration, sensor fusion, and onboard navigation
• Experience mentoring or guiding junior engineers

🎯 What You’ll Do

• 0–6 Months: Get us Pilot-Ready

• Own PID tuning and flight software improvements

• Write and test custom control scripts to create new operating modes

• Fuse sensor data for stable, reliable ground and air control

• 6–12 Months: Build Out Autonomy

• Develop a robust ground-driving control stack from scratch—this does not exist in open source

• Collaborate with software and autonomy engineers to shape full-stack navigation

• Mentor a junior controls engineer and define internal best practices

• 12–24 Months: Ruggedize Autonomy

• Enable autonomous transitions between flight and ground modes

• Help scale control solutions across ruggedized and production-ready platforms

• Work closely with field teams to debug, adapt, and evolve the system in real-time

⚠️ Why This Role Matters

There is no open-source playbook for what we’re doing. You’ll be inventing core parts of the product—and helping us crack a category-defining control challenge: overcoming gimbal lock and teaching a drone to drive on the ground.

You’ll have strong technical leadership support (our VPE/CTO), but when it comes to controls, you’ll be the expert.