The Bot Company develops autonomous household chore robots, leveraging founders’ autonomous‑vehicle and robotics software experience (Cruise, Tesla) to design consumer-facing domestic service robots and supporting AI/software systems.
THE BOT COMPANY We're building a helpful robot for every home. We're a small team of engineers, designers, and operators based in San Francisco. Our team comes from Tesla, Cruise, OpenAI, Google, Pixar, and many other great companies. In the past we've shipped to hundreds of millions of users and know what it takes to build amazing products and experiences. Our team is deliberately lean to promote rapid decision making and do away with bureaucracy and hierarchy. Everyone is an IC and is empowered with massive scope, radical ownership, and direct responsibility. We work across the stack with a culture built for rapid iteration and fast execution. WHAT WE LOOK FOR IN ALL CANDIDATES All roles at The Bot Company demand extreme sharpness and the ability to move fast in high-intensity environments. Throughout the process, we expect candidates to demonstrate: - Exceptional mental acuity: you think quickly, learn instantly, and reason across unfamiliar domains. - Engineering curiosity: you naturally dig into how systems work, even outside your specialty. - High performance mindset: you move fast, handle ambiguity, and excel when the environment is demanding. FIRMWARE AND MOTOR CONTROL ENGINEER You’ll build the low-level firmware and control systems that drive the actuators and mechanisms inside our robots. This role is for someone who can write high-performance embedded software, implement advanced motor-control algorithms, and work seamlessly across hardware and software boundaries to achieve precise, reliable motion. REQUIREMENTS - Strong proficiency in embedded C, C++, or Rust with a deep understanding of real-time constraints, microcontrollers, and low-level peripherals (timers, ADCs, PWMs, DMA, SPI/I2C/CAN). - Deep knowledge of motor‑control theory (field oriented control, dq transforms) and hands‑on experience architecting, implementing and tuning current, torque and speed loops for PMSM/BLDC actuators. - Proven track record of working closely with electrical engineers and ML engineers to integrate firmware with custom motor-control hardware and enable force‑sensitive control behaviors. - Experience with encoders, Hall/resolver and current sensors, including calibration, filtering and synchronization for reliable control feedback. - Comfortable bringing up new boards, debugging signal integrity, validating control loops, and optimizing performance under real-world loads. - Familiarity with RTOS or bare-metal systems, and understanding of scheduling, interrupt handling, and real-time guarantees. - Knowledge of safety mechanisms (overcurrent, overtemp, watchdogs, brownout protection) and how to implement them robustly in firmware. WHAT YOU’LL DO - Own motor-control firmware end-to-end, from prototype to production-ready implementation. - Work closely with machine‑learning engineers to enable force‑sensitive, compliant control under dynamic loads. - Design and implement firmware for motor-control subsystems powering robot motion; implementing and tuning FOC and related control loops. - Build robust sensing and calibration pipelines for encoders, Hall sensors, and current/voltage measurements; develop automated test routines and use the resulting data for system identification, loop tuning and performance validation. - Bring up and debug custom hardware and sensors; collaborate with hardware engineers on board bring‑up and integrate sensors into the control stack.. - Implement observers, estimators and fault‑handling state machines; integrate high‑speed telemetry and data‑logging for control verification and diagnostics. WHY JOIN You’ll work with a small, elite team on challenges that require speed, intelligence, and deep engineering instinct. If you enjoy understanding systems at all levels, move fast, and think even faster, you’ll thrive here.