Exoskeleton Controls Engineer

ABOUT US:

Skip is on a mission to make life joyful through powered movement.

Movement is a powerful way to build physical, mental and social health. Yet it is elusive for 2 billion people due to age, injury, or disability. We are building products that will restore mobility for millions and enable a new frontier of joyful movement experiences. We want to build a future where a grandparent can easily outrun their grandkids and no one is left behind at the trailhead.

Skip is a 28-person early-stage start-up that spun out of Google X in 2023. With deep cross-disciplinary expertise and key partnerships (e.g. with Arc'teryx) we are uniquely positioned to launch the first commercially successful wearable robotic device, the MO/GO, develop a platform to launch future Movewear products and transform millions of lives in the coming years.

We are seeking a highly motivated and adaptable individual who will explore the peaks and valleys of all problems that may come up while building a new generation of wearable robots for everyday life.

THE ROLE:

We are looking for a controls engineer who would primarily be responsible for the design, development, testing and validation of the high-level control system for our powered leg exoskeleton. This means deciding how MO/GO senses what the wearer is doing and how it helps them: estimating gait phase, detecting activity changes, and delivering assistance that feels natural, safe and joyful across walking, stairs, hills and everything in between.

We are a team of 28 phenomenal senior engineers and product leaders, where everyone contributes directly to product development. As such this will start as an individual contributor role, with leadership for critical systems, working closely with our firmware, mechatronics and product teams.

Some of the specific responsibilities include, but are not limited to:

• Own the high-level exoskeleton control architecture, from sensing and state estimation through assistance torque commands to the low-level motor controller
• Develop and tune gait phase estimation, activity recognition and transition detection (level walking, stairs, slopes, sit-to-stand) using IMU, encoder and torque sensor data
• Design assistance strategies and torque profiles that adapt to different users, speeds and terrain, including human-in-the-loop optimization
• Explore and deploy learning-based control methods where they outperform classical approaches, and get them running reliably on embedded hardware
• Build and maintain simulation and modeling tools (e.g. MuJoCo, OpenSim, MATLAB/Simulink) to speed up controller development and validation
• Define and own safety behaviors, fault handling and edge-case responses so the device fails gracefully on the body
• Plan and run human subject testing and data collection, and turn the data into controller improvements
• Guide design and development decisions for future iterations of the product and future Movewear systems, including sensor selection, actuator requirements and compute needs
• Wear prototypes several hours a week to participate in data collection, on-body testing and provide feedback
• Bring joy to the team and participate in embarrassing team events

Basic Qualifications

• 5+ years' experience developing control systems for robotics, exoskeletons, prosthetics or other physical systems that interact with people
• Strong foundation in control theory, state estimation and sensor fusion (e.g. Kalman filtering)
• Experience taking controllers from simulation to real hardware, including tuning and debugging on physical systems
• Proficiency in C/C++ and Python, with experience deploying control code on real-time or embedded platforms
• Experience designing and running experiments with human subjects or real-world users, and analyzing the resulting data
• Familiarity with biomechanics and human gait
• Experience with design for systems at scale, with a focus on testing and validation
• Attention to detail, even in the middle of overly-long lists
• Ability to work at the Skip Bay Area office >3 days/week
• Sense of humour, tolerant of Aussie & Canadian spelling

Bonus Points

• Experience with lower-limb exoskeletons or powered prostheses
• Experience with ML-based or reinforcement learning controllers deployed on real robots
• Familiarity with series elastic actuators and torque-controlled drives
• Experience with powered consumer electronics (e.g. drones, robot vacuums)
• Experience in start-up environments and using AI coding tools to leverage your skills for broader impact
• Personal motivation to improve human movement

This is a full time hybrid position working at the Skip office in the Dogpatch neighborhood of San Francisco.

Skip is an equal opportunity employer. Our hiring decisions are based on need and competence to satisfy said need. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, color, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, age, marital status, veteran status, disability status, or any other legally protected status.

Any and all offers of employment extended by Skip are conditional on candidates’ ability to provide satisfactory proof of eligibility to maintain full-time employment in the United States.