Embedded Controls Engineer -- Thermal/Fluid Systems

Key Responsibilities

• Design and optimize control strategies (PID, nested loops, feedforward, state-space, and MIMO, etc.) to manage the interconnected thermal, fluidic, and electrical domains of the LightCell.
• Bare-Metal Firmware Implementation: Translate control theory math directly into robust, real-time code. Implement, debug, and validate these algorithms directly in C/C++ on our STM32 microcontroller firmware. (No PLCs or ladder logic—you own the firmware level of the control system).
• Develop mathematical models of physical components (heaters, pumps, valves, and combustion dynamics) using MATLAB/Simulink or Python to execute hardware-in-the-loop (HIL) simulations and predict transient responses. Use modeling to accelerate deployment, ensuring it serves as a bridge to real code rather than a final product.
• Spend substantial time in the lab. Set up step-response testing, capture sensor data, and tune control coefficients on live physical prototypes to conquer highly non-linear thermal and fluidic dynamics.

Qualifications & Skills

• Education: B.S., M.S., or Ph.D. in Mechanical, Electrical, Chemical, Systems, or Robotics Engineering. (We value a strong background in process control, thermal systems, or mechatronics).
• Control Loop Mastery: Deep practical and mathematical understanding of classical controls (Transfer Functions, PID, nested loops, feedforward, and stability margins). Experience managing slow, non-linear, interacting physical processes (thermal, pneumatic, hydraulic, or chemical) is highly preferred.
• C/C++ Firmware Competency: Production-grade proficiency writing digital control code directly in C/C++ for resource-constrained microcontrollers. This is a firmware-heavy role; pure MATLAB modelers or industrial PLC programmers will not fit the technical scope.
• Practical Test Skills: Eager to validate algorithms on physical hardware, tuning loops on live test setups to manage non-linear dynamics.