Gait Control Engineer
Company: Shift Robotics
Location: Austin
Posted on: February 15, 2026
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Job Description:
Job Description Job Description We’re making the world a more
walkable place. Through intuitive personal mobility, we make
walking faster, more efficient, and more accessible to empower
people to choose walking over sitting in traffic. By giving people
the ability to Moonwalk, we believe the path forward to a better
future is easily reached on your own two feet. Help us advance the
world’s fastest shoes by designing, prototyping, and testing
reliable and innovative hardware. We want an engineer ready to push
the boundaries and one who makes the impossible a reality. We are
looking for a work ethic similar to an engineer in Formula One. You
must deliver and iterate quickly. We are not here for mediocrity,
we are here to create elegant engineering designs. Is it demanding?
Sure, but it is also rewarding and fun. While we embark on
developing the next generation of Moonwalkers, we need to add to
the Gait Control team, where we are looking for a person with
real-world experience in developing a bipedal locomotion controller
and an eye for detail. You will work with our mechanical team on
the sensor and actuator packaging, the electronics team to balance
performance and cost, and our software team to run your controller
in the most efficient and reliable fashion. We are covered in
Wired, CNET, Gizomodo, PCMag and many other tech press.
Responsibilities: The Gait Control Engineer is a critical position
and will be responsible for leading the development of the gait
control algorithm by applying machine learning, sensor fusion and
bipedal locomotion control. You will prototype novel algorithms in
simulation and evaluate them on the actual prototype. You will
develop control strategies for various poses and gait, implement
and evaluate the control system onto the real-world machine. You
will solve complex problems through efficient models that run on
low-cost embedded systems with limited computational resources. You
will act as a solid system expert in ensuring safe and intuitive
response of Shift shoes at all times. You will be responsible for
determining how to best design for performance requirements and
system safety. You will determine what is most important, potential
problems that may arise and for developing designs and solutions to
enhance performance and reception. You will develop
production-quality embedded code with the firmware team and own
your algorithms from design to production. Requirements At least 2
years research and development experience in bipedal locomotion,
actuated prosthetics, or humanoid robotics, and published papers in
internationally recognized conference or journals. Forward and
Inverse Kinematics and Dynamics. Model predictive control.
Expertise in control systems, state estimation, multibody dynamics,
or optimization Sensor fusion and state estimation. Proficient with
Matlab, Python or other prototyping language. Demonstrated
excellence in real-time control and processing using C and C++.
Familiar with Matlab Simulink or physical model simulation such as
Mujuco. Experience developing, debugging, and optimizing real-time
controls on highly dynamic machines. Strong intuition for physical
movement in machines, and insight into the physics of motion.
Familiar with RTOS and Cortex based embedded solutions is a plus.
Benefits Opportunities for participation in our Employee Options
programs 401K retirement plan Excellent medical, dental, and vision
insurance Sick and Vacation time (Flex time for salary positions),
and Paid Holidays Massive Growth Opportunities and a long-term
career Casual and comfortable work environment
Keywords: Shift Robotics, Pflugerville , Gait Control Engineer, Engineering , Austin, Texas
