Senior Embedded Motor Control Engineer

Title: Senior Embedded Motor Control SW Engineer (Inner Loop)

Location: Irvine, CA (On-site – 5 Days/Week, 9:00 AM – 4:30 PM)

Company: Confidential (Aviation / Aerospace Innovation)

The Mission

At our client's company, they are bypassing the slow, legacy methods of aerospace development to design, prototype, and scale automated aircraft and advanced propulsion systems at a fraction of traditional timelines. They combine the relentless speed of a high-growth tech startup with first-principles aerospace engineering.

Our client is seeking a Senior Embedded Motor Control Software Engineer to own the absolute low-level, high-speed inner control loop of their electric propulsion and actuation hardware. This is a specialized, pure-play programming and physical execution role where your code will directly modulate electrical currents to spin high-power electric motors and advanced propeller systems.

Critical Fit Note: Low-Level Firmware & Inner-Loop Execution

They need a hands-on firmware expert who writes code at the register level, not a high-level systems manager. This role lives entirely inside the fast inner loop of their software architecture.

• What this role IS: A hardcore, low-level execution role. You will spend your days writing bare-metal or RTOS C code to drive microcontrollers, manipulate power electronics, and tune high-speed current loops.
• What this role IS NOT: This is not an upper-layer supervisory control role (they have a dedicated team for that), nor is it a high-level compliance or process management position. If you do not have direct, daily experience programming microcontrollers to control physical power hardware and spinning motors, this will not be a fit.

Key Responsibilities

• Algorithm Leadership: Own the design, implementation, and optimization of low-level motor control software for high-power Field-Oriented Control (FOC) and Space Vector Modulation (SVM) algorithms driving PMSM and BLDC motors.
• Embedded Implementation: Directly program and optimize PWM modules, high-speed ADC sampling, and interrupt timing at the register level on TI C2000 (specifically F280034SPN) or comparable microcontrollers.
• Inner Loop Ownership: Take full architectural ownership of the 20 kHz current control loop, as well as velocity and position control loops, running deterministically on real-time microcontrollers.
• Modeling & Simulation: Utilize MATLAB/Simulink to build motor, inverter, and actuator models that inform controller structure, switching characteristics, and loop gains.
• Hands-on Lab Tuning: Sit at the test bench to perform rule-based tuning for current, velocity, and position loops while analyzing lab data (using oscilloscopes, current probes, and multimeters) to refine stability margins and eliminate hardware anomalies.
• Integration & Test: Design and execute MIL, SIL, and Hardware-in-the-Loop (HIL) test profiles using platforms like dSPACE, Vector, or Typhoon to validate your code before putting it on physical flight hardware.

What You’ll Bring

• Experience: Minimum of 8+ years of dedicated, hands-on experience in embedded motor control firmware and algorithm development.
• Low-Level Software Mastery: Deep proficiency writing deterministic Embedded C/C++ for bare-metal or RTOS real-time applications.
• Deep Technical Foundations: Strong first-principles understanding of classical Control Theory, Power Electronics, space vector dynamics, gate drivers, and electrical machines.
• Hardware Intuition: A proven track record of standing on a live lab floor, bringing up new inverter/microcontroller prototype hardware, and debugging code across physical electrical boundaries.

Why Join Our Client?

• The Impact: A "builder-first" engineering environment where you see your inner-loop code physically spin massive propulsion systems and control cutting-edge flight actuation in weeks, not years.
• The Lifestyle: A professional Monday–Friday, 9:00 AM – 4:30 PM schedule working alongside elite engineering talent.
• The Reward: Top-tier compensation including a highly negotiable base salary, aggressive equity participation (over 6,000 stock options), a 10% annual bonus, and 85% premium medical coverage.