Staff Motor Control Firmware Engineer

Join Us in Revolutionizing Cardiac Care from Beautiful Santa Cruz. Imagine building the firmware that gives surgeons superhuman precision while being minutes from world-class surf breaks and redwood forests. We’re developing a groundbreaking robotic platform for transcatheter valve deployment—and we need an exceptional Motor Control Firmware Engineer to bring our actuators to life. You’ll own the embedded firmware that drives our 12-axis robotic system, implementing the motor control algorithms that translate high-level motion commands into precise, smooth, and safe actuator behavior. This is a ground-floor opportunity to build motor control firmware from early-stage scaffolding into production-ready code for a life-saving medical device. What You’ll Do: Design and implement BLDC motor control algorithms including commutation logic, field-oriented control (FOC), and current/velocity/position control loops. Develop bare-metal firmware in C for STM32 microcontrollers (Cortex-M4), optimizing for deterministic real-time performance. Implement PWM generation, Hall sensor feedback processing, and closed-loop control for precision motion. Build current sensing, fault detection, and protection mechanisms to ensure safe motor operation. Develop and integrate CAN bus communication for coordination with the main robot controller. Characterize and tune motor performance—you’ll be at the bench with an oscilloscope as much as you’re in the code. Collaborate with electrical engineering on motor driver hardware, power electronics, and PCB bring-up. Work with the controls team to integrate low-level motor firmware with higher-level motion planning and EtherCAT infrastructure. Establish testing practices for embedded firmware, including hardware-in-the-loop testing and automated regression. Document firmware architecture, interfaces, and calibration procedures for regulatory submissions.