Job description
Job Summary
We are seeking an experienced Controls Systems Engineer with deep expertise in the design, development, and deployment of real-time, time-critical, and safety-critical control systems. This role is responsible for creating advanced closed-loop control solutions for precision motion and tracking applications, including stabilization, target tracking, actuator control, and real-time system integration. The successful candidate will lead the development of robust control architectures that deliver high performance, reliability, and deterministic behaviour in demanding operating environments.
Key Responsibilities
- Design, develop, and optimize closed-loop control algorithms, including PID, state-space, and advanced control methods such as LQR and Model Predictive Control (MPC).
- Develop stabilization systems that compensate for vibration, motion disturbances, environmental influences, and other dynamic operating conditions.
- Create and maintain real-time tracking and positioning control loops, converting sensor-derived state information into precise actuator commands with minimal latency and overshoot.
- Define data interfaces between sensing, estimation, and control subsystems, ensuring accurate synchronization, coordinate transformation, data integrity, and fault handling.
- Model, simulate, and validate dynamic system behaviour, actuator performance, and control-loop stability prior to deployment.
- Design and implement deterministic real-time control software on embedded platforms, RTOS environments, or bare-metal hardware.
- Establish and manage timing budgets across sensing, computation, communication, and actuation functions to meet strict performance requirements.
- Apply safety-critical engineering principles, including redundancy, watchdog mechanisms, fault detection, protective limits, graceful degradation, and fail-safe operation.
- Support system integration, calibration, commissioning, and performance validation activities.
- Develop fault-management strategies and fallback operating modes for sensor failures, communication interruptions, loss of feedback, or actuator malfunctions.
- Perform control-system verification through simulation, laboratory testing, field validation, and performance analysis.
- Produce and maintain technical documentation covering system architecture, control strategies, tuning methodologies, performance metrics, timing analysis, and validation results.
Requirements
- Strong proficiency in C/C++ development for embedded and real-time systems, with extensive hands-on software engineering experience.
- Advanced knowledge of classical and modern control theory, including PID control, state-space modelling, system identification, and frequency-domain analysis.
- Proven experience designing and implementing real-time control systems with deterministic execution, latency control, jitter management, and timing analysis.
- Demonstrated expertise in safety-critical system development, including fault tolerance, redundancy strategies, watchdog implementation, and protection mechanisms.
- Strong understanding of motion-control systems, servo drives, actuators, sensors, feedback systems, and control-loop integration.
- Experience with software development tools and methodologies, including version control, build systems, automated testing, and debugging environments.
- Familiarity with real-time operating systems such as VxWorks, QNX, FreeRTOS, or equivalent platforms.
- Strong analytical and problem-solving abilities with a structured engineering approach.
- Ability to work independently while collaborating effectively with multidisciplinary engineering stakeholders.
- Excellent written and verbal communication skills, including the ability to communicate complex technical concepts clearly.
- Prior experience delivering real-time control solutions from concept through deployment is highly desirable.
Qualifications
- Bachelor's or Master's degree in Mechatronics, Electrical Engineering, Aerospace Engineering, Robotics, Control Engineering, or a related discipline.
- Minimum of 6 years of experience in closed-loop, real-time, and safety-critical control system design and implementation.
- Demonstrated experience with motion-control systems, stabilization platforms, precision pointing mechanisms, robotics, automation systems, or other advanced control applications.
- Strong understanding of control-system architectures, embedded computing platforms, real-time communications, and system-level integration.
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