Modern Controls Engineer - Principal

Pratt Miller, an Oshkosh Company, is a product-development firm in motorsports, defense, and mobility industries. We provide clients with product engineering and low-volume production solutions, including research & development, engineering, prototype manufacturing, test & validation, and low-rate production.

About the role

This highly technical, hands-on position supports the full lifecycle of embedded control systems for defense applications—from modeling and algorithm development through hardware integration and vehicle-level deployment.

Responsibilities

• Design, develop, implement, and validate embedded control systems using classical and modern control theory.
• Perform stability, robustness, and performance analysis; design and tune multi-loop and multi-axis control architectures.
• Deploy control algorithms using Simulink and embedded C/C++ environments.
• Develop and validate control strategies through SIL, HIL, bench, and vehicle testing.
• Support system commissioning, calibration, and field troubleshooting.
• Develop state-space and frequency-domain models of electromechanical, hydraulic, and vehicle systems via physical modeling and system identification.
• Identify performance metrics and system specifications from model results; correlate and validate models to test data.
• Use models to develop and test controls algorithms.
• Support design, selection, and integration of electronic components; communicate mechanical requirements to design staff.
• Identify controller hardware to meet I/O and computational requirements; troubleshoot and resolve system and electrical issues.

Requirements

• MS or PhD in Automotive, Mechanical, Electrical Engineering, Computer Science, Computer Engineering, or Mechatronic Systems.
• 8+ years of engineering experience.
• Must meet requirements for obtaining US Government clearance.

Skills

• Control system modeling and simulation in MATLAB, Simulink, and Stateflow.
• Classical control techniques: PID, lead–lag compensation, loop shaping, root locus design, feedforward control, cascaded loop architectures.
• Modern control techniques: state-space modeling, LQR/LQG, Kalman Filtering, Model Predictive Control (MPC), robust control, MIMO system design.
• Numerical optimization methods for parameter fitting and control tuning.
• Embedded Model-Based Development tools (Simulink/Stateflow Coder, MotoHawk, Raptor, OpenECU, dSPACE).
• Embedded software in C/C++ on microcontrollers, Linux, or RTOS-based platforms.
• Expertise in weapon systems, combat vehicle engineering, fire control systems, turrets, and ammo handling systems.
• Knowledge of MIL Standards (MIL-STD-498, MIL-STD-461, MIL-STD-882E, DO-178C, DO-254).
• Networking protocols and standards (Ethernet, TCP/IP, UDP, EtherCAT, DDS, TSN).
• Automotive protocols (CAN, LIN, J1939, XCP/CCP) and tools (Vector, Kvaser, INCA).
• Actuator controls (motors, valves) and by-wire design.
• Electric and hybrid vehicle architecture.
• Vehicle/system-level simulation (ADAMS, Dymola, CarSim/TruckSim, FMI/FMU).
• Vehicle and system troubleshooting experience.
• Electrical/mechanical/hydraulic/pneumatic system design and simulation.
• Data acquisition hardware and software experience.

Schedule

Daytime schedule, Monday–Friday, with infrequent night/weekend work for project surge support and additional effort as needed to achieve deadlines. Some travel or on-site customer work may be required.

Pay

$104,100.00 – $173,900.00. Individual pay is determined by the scope and responsibilities of the role, the candidate’s experience, education, skills, and equity among team members in similar positions.

Benefits

Beyond offering a competitive total rewards package, we prioritize a people-first culture and provide various opportunities to support team member growth and success.