Principal Research Engineer - Control, Optimization & Safety Systems - Austin, Texas, United States
$249,900 - $338,100 USD yearly
Originally posted 9 May 2026 by the employer.
About the role
This role focuses on developing real-time control, optimization, and safety-critical systems, and integrating them with learning-based components in hierarchical architectures for robotics and embodied AI.
What you'll do
- Develop control algorithms such as MPC and optimal control for complex robots. - Integrate control with learning-based components in hierarchical systems. - Design safety mechanisms including runtime assurance and constraint enforcement. - Contribute to real-time system design under strict latency constraints. - Enable system-level integration across ML, perception, and systems. - Translate safety and control requirements into compute and architecture insights.
What you'll need
- Strong background in control theory, robotics dynamics, and optimization. - Experience with real-time or safety-critical systems. - Proficiency in C++ and/or Python. - Experience with robotic platforms and simulators.
Nice to have
- Experience with MPC and trajectory optimization. - Knowledge of Control Barrier Functions or safety-constrained control. - Experience with formal methods and verification. - Experience with learning-based control. - Experience with high-DOF or humanoid robots.
Skills: control algorithms, robotics, real-time systems, safety mechanisms, c++/python
This role has been open 120 days — well above the 62-day median for Systems Software Engineering roles.
Systems Software Engineering · Systems Software
|
Open roles in category
698
|
Median days open
62 d
|
Median salary
$209k
|
See the full market breakdown ▾Category comparison, skills in demand, and who else is hiring
| Metric | Arm Holdings | All employers we track in this specialty (698 roles · 73 employers) |
|---|---|---|
| Open roles in this specialty | 20 | 698 |
| Open roles in the wider Software, Firmware & Systems family | 83 | 6298 · 145 employers |
| Median days open | 120 d | 62 d (+58 d vs this employer) |
| Median salary (USD postings) | — | $209k |
Skills observed across this category: control algorithms, robotics, real-time systems, safety mechanisms, c++/python
Who's hiring in this category
- Qualcomm · 174 open roles · median 79 d
- NVIDIA · 136 open roles · median 43 d
- AMD · 62 open roles · median 51 d
- Broadcom · 22 open roles · median 58 d
- Mobileye · 21 open roles · median 91 d
- Arm Holdings (this employer) · 20 open roles · median 119 d
How we counted: 698 open Systems Software Engineering (Systems Software) roles from 73 employers tracked in the SemiconductorJobs index, counted 22 Oct 2026. Specialty figures count only roles carrying this exact specialty label, so an employer's related work in neighbouring specialties is not included there — it is counted in the wider Software, Firmware & Systems family row. Figures refresh nightly.