Capstan Medical, Inc.
Senior / Staff Robotics and Controls Engineer
West Menlo Park, California · Staff+
Sponsorship not specifiedDetected 160 days ago
PythonC++AlgorithmsData AnalysisMotion DesignRoboticsMechanical DesignElectrical EngineeringSensorsFDA RegulatoryMedical DevicesResearchAnimal StudiesCommunicationMentoringActuators
About the role
- Reports to: Manager of Robotics and Controls Workplace Type: Hybrid (onsite average of 3 days/week in Santa Cruz and the new Bay Area office near West Menlo Park).
- Our team combines surgical robotics, catheter-based delivery, and next-generation implants to transform complex procedures into safer, lower-stress solutions for patients and clinicians alike.
- As a highly collaborative, hands-on team, we move fast, wear multiple hats, and believe the best ideas can come from anyone.
Responsibilities
- Design, implement, and verify robotic control algorithms for Capstan's
- Develop forward and inverse kinematic models for continuum and tendon-
- driven mechanisms, and validate them against real-world data.
- Build trajectory engines, drive modes, and constraint-aware motion
- Design and execute characterization studies on actuators, tendon
- partner with Systems and Quality to support design
- detection thresholds; partner with Systems and Quality to support design
- Translate clinical and user needs into design requirements, prototype
- Drive technical direction for path planning, catheter control, or robotics
- Mentor engineers on the team, lead design reviews, and contribute to
Requirements
- 5+ years (Senior) or 8+ years (Staff) of hands-on robotics or controls development
- Track record of shipping robotic control algorithms in real production systems, ideally end-to-end from concept to production, IDE/clinical use, or FDA-cleared product
- Experience navigating ambiguity in early- and mid-stage development while delivering concrete, testable results
- ability to make smart calls on clinical workflow, regulation, and risk management to save time and effort later
Nice to have
- Strong foundation in robot kinematics and dynamics - forward/inverse kinematics, Jacobians, rigid-body dynamics, and ideally continuum, concentric tube, or tendon-driven systems
- Fluent with classical and modern control -- PID, feedforward, model-based, optimal/MPC, impedance/admittance -- and the judgment to know when each is appropriate
- Hands-on experience implementing control algorithms in modern C++ (14/17/20) for real-time, safety-critical systems, with Python for rapid prototyping, data analysis, and tooling
- Motion planning and trajectory generation experience - constrained nonlinear optimization, collision-aware planning, or task-space control paradigms
- State estimation and sensor fusion experience - Kalman/EKF/UKF, particle filters, or nonlinear observers, with a working understanding of noise models and sensor calibration
- Comfortable characterizing real electromechanical systems on the bench
- Strongly Preferred:
- BS/MS in Robotics, Mechanical Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Computer Science, or equivalent
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