InitX — Robotics Kinematics, Planning & Control Engineer
We're hiring: Robotics Kinematics, Planning & Control Engineer
We are looking for a hands-on robotics engineer who can model complex robot arms, develop custom kinematic solvers, and design reliable planning and control methods for high-precision, safety-constrained applications.
The role is suited for someone who can move beyond standard motion-planning packages, understand the mathematics of the robot, compare suitable solver and controller families, and independently take an approach from research through simulation and hardware testing.
Kinematic modelling of serial, redundant, cable-driven, or constrained robotic arms
Forward and inverse kinematics, Jacobians, singularities, calibration, and redundancy resolution
Custom constrained solvers for remote-centre, tool-axis, joint-limit, and workspace constraints
Trajectory generation and optimisation for smooth, precise, collision-aware motion
Cartesian, task-space, visual-servo, impedance, and admittance control
Real-time execution, safety supervision, behaviour trees, recovery logic, and hardware integration
You will study relevant research, establish deterministic baselines, compare solver and control families, analyse failure cases, and recommend the most appropriate architecture.
Strong C++ and Python programming skills
Solid understanding of robot kinematics, dynamics, Jacobians, and coordinate transformations
Experience implementing inverse kinematics, trajectory generation, or robot controllers
Knowledge of constrained optimisation and real-time numerical methods
Experience integrating simulators, sensors, actuators, and low-level robot interfaces
Ability to reproduce research methods and validate them through measurable experiments
Experience with ROS 2 is useful, but expertise should extend beyond a single framework
Kinematics and constrained IK: analytical IK, differential IK, hierarchical QP
Trajectory optimisation: nonlinear optimisation, direct collocation, model predictive control
Task-space control: operational-space control, impedance control, admittance control
Robotics software: Pinocchio or Drake, CasADi, dVRK / CRTK-style interfaces
Experience with remote-centre-of-motion constraints, redundant manipulators, visual servoing, force control, cable-driven mechanisms, or medical and other safety-critical robots is an advantage.
You should be comfortable owning the deterministic robotics track, from mathematical modelling and solver selection to real-time control, testing, and hardware integration.
We are looking for someone who can decide how the robot should move, which constraints must always be enforced, and how to prove that the resulting behavior is precise, stable, and verifiable.
Open to full time, or a long-term contract of 3 to 6 months.
