Robotics Engineer, Staff

Location: Onsite — Austin, TX

Employment Type: Full‑Time

Job Title: Lead Robotics Engineer

Company Overview 9 Mothers Defense develops AI-enabled systems to counter unmanned aerial threats. Our first product, EDDA, is an autonomous counter-sUAS point-defense platform designed to detect, track, and neutralize Group 1 drone threats. The company is headquartered in Austin, Texas.

Position Summary

9 Mothers is seeking a Robotics Lead to own the control systems and motion engineering for our counter-sUAS platform. The Robotics Lead is responsible for the design, implementation, and tuning of the high-bandwidth control loops and state estimation that enable EDDA to track and engage small, fast-moving aerial targets with precision. This is a senior individual contributor position focused on control theory.

Essential Duties

• Design, implement, and tune the control stack for EDDA's motion system, including actuators and gimbaled subsystems.

• Develop and maintain high-bandwidth control loops, including PID, feedforward, and model-predictive control as appropriate to the application.

• Develop and maintain state estimation pipelines that fuse inertial measurement unit data, encoder feedback, and perception output into a consistent target track.

• Characterize and model mechanical nonlinearities — including backlash, cogging, stiction, inertia, and structural modes — and develop compensation strategies.

• Build calibration, logging, and replay tools to support field performance analysis.

• Continuously improve slew rate, settling time, and pointing accuracy as the hardware platform evolves.

Requirements

• 6+ years of professional experience in production controls engineering within motion systems, robotics, aerospace, or comparable real-time domains.

• Strong command of modern control theory, including state-space methods, observers, and model-predictive control.

• Proficiency in Rust, C, or C++ for real-time code, and Python for analysis and tooling.

• Demonstrated track record of bringing a complex physical system to production-grade performance.

• U.S. citizenship and ability to pass a background check.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience with gimbal, turret, or pointing-system design.

• System identification and model-based control experience.

• Hands-on experience with motor drivers, CAN bus, and RTOS targets.

• Experience with ROS 2 or DDS middleware in production.

• Active security clearance, or eligibility to obtain one.

• Prior defense startup experience

• Passion for building robots or engineering projects as a hobby

Benefits

Meaningful Early Equity: You aren't just an employee; you are a foundational owner. Your contributions directly drive the value of your stake in the company.

• Direct Roadmap Influence: Forget the bureaucracy of big defense. You will have a seat at the table, directly shaping our product and technology trajectory from day one.

• Mission-Critical Work: We don't build for "what if." We build systems the Department of War actively needs to counter immediate, real-world threats.

• The Builder's Playground: Work in a brand-new lab fully optimized for rapid prototyping, equipped with NVIDIA Jetsons, high-end scopes, and 3-D printers.

• 100% Employer-Paid Premiums: We cover 100% of your medical, dental, and vision insurance premiums and cover 50% of healthcare premiums for your dependents.

• Unlimited PTO: We value results, not clock-watching. Take the time you need to stay sharp and recharge.

• Zero Red Tape: You report to the founders. You have the autonomy to make technical decisions that would take months of committee approval at a larger firm.

• Austin-Based Culture: Join an onsite team in Austin, TX, where we prioritize high-bandwidth collaboration and rapid field-testing.

• Relocation Assistance: We want the best talent in the room. If you aren't in Austin yet, we’ll help you get here, to make your transition to the Silicon Hills seamless.

About the Interview

• Initial Screening with recruiter - 30 min phone call

• 1st Round Virtual Interview - peer engineer + either Director or CTO (1.5hr via MS Teams)

• 2nd Round Onsite Interview - CTO + Director + VP + peer(s) (~ 6 hours in-person) **will fly out candidates that are not local

• Reference checks & offer