{"id":81395,"title":"Locomotion & Whole-Body Control Engineer (human)","company":"Neura Robotics","city":null,"region":"Baden-Württemberg","location":"Metzingen / Riederich, Riederich, Baden-Wurttemberg, Germany","work_model":"onsite","employment_type":"full_time","employment":["full_time"],"roles":["software"],"visa":"not_mentioned","relocation":"not_mentioned","posted_at":"2026-05-11T06:56:11.278000+00:00","tools":["C++","Python"],"seniority":"mid","years_experience_min":4,"german_requirement":"not_mentioned","german_level":"unspecified","english_requirement":"required","english_level":"unspecified","team_language":"unknown","confidence":0.4,"method":"rules","language_badge":"Not stated","language_evidence":null,"requirements_snippet":"Hands-on experience on humanoids, quadrupeds, or other high-DOF legged robots. Familiarity with Pinocchio, MuJoCo, Crocoddyl, IPOPT, TSID, OCS2, or similar open-source tools. Hierarchical QP, weighted QP, task prioritization, …","url":"https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/neura-robotics-gmbh/986ebee0-ee43-4eb2-80ca-8c6c654c990e","source":"ashby","agency":null,"description_text":"Your mission & challenges\nWe are growing our legged-robotics capability on NEURA's humanoid quadruped platforms. This role spans both core layers of the legged control stack: trajectory optimization and MPC for kino-dynamic motion generation, and QP-based instantaneous whole-body control for executing those motions on real hardware at 1 kHz.\nThe work is focused on contact-rich dynamics, real-time optimization, and reliable execution on physical robots. You will collaborate closely with state estimation, simulation, low-level control, and hardware stakeholders, and with the application teams whose tasks ultimately depend on robust, predictable locomotion and whole-body behaviour.\n• Whole-body motion generation and control for floating-base legged platforms — locomotion, balance, contact transitions, and loco-manipulation (walking while manipulating).\n• Trajectory optimization and model-predictive control pipelines over robot state, contact schedules, ground reaction forces, centroidal momentum, and joint trajectories — using reduced-order locomotion models such as LIPM, SRBD, and centroidal dynamics.\n• QP-based task-space inverse dynamics for executing instantaneous whole-body control from MPC and trajectory-optimization references at 1 kHz on the real robot.\n• Whole-body modelling for the platform: floating-base rigid-body dynamics from URDF / MJCF, joint configuration, FK / IK, Jacobians, and mass / Coriolis / gravity computation.\n• Constraint formulation across the MPC and QP layers — contact, friction, torque, joint, kinematic, and stability constraints — with task-hierarchy design appropriate to the platform.\n• Solver performance work across both layers: warm-starting, numerical conditioning, constraint handling, and real-time reliability at 500 Hz – 1 kHz.\n• Deployment, tuning, and debugging of MPC, trajectory optimization, IK, and inverse dynamics pipelines on physical robots — including platform-specific contact-model calibration and validation against real robot data.\n• High-performance C++ for real-time execution; Python tooling for analysis, prototyping, and debugging.\n\nWhat we can look forward to\n• MSc or PhD in robotics, controls, mechanical or electrical engineering, computer science, or a related field.\n• 4+ years of hands-on experience developing trajectory optimization, MPC for locomotion, and / or whole-body control on physical robots.\n• Strong foundation in floating-base articulated rigid-body dynamics and contact modelling.\n• Strong working knowledge of reduced-order locomotion models (LIPM, SRBD, centroidal dynamics, or equivalents) and their use inside MPC.\n• Strong foundation in optimal control, constrained numerical optimization, and model-predictive control for legged robots.\n• Hands-on experience with whole-body QP / TSID frameworks on real robot data — including QP / DDP solver internals.\n• Hands-on experience deploying real-time control / MPC / WBC pipelines at 500 Hz – 1 kHz on hardware.\n• Strong C++ for real-time robotics software; Python for analysis, tooling, prototyping, and debugging.\n• Practical understanding of how contact dynamics, actuator limits, latency, state-estimation error, solver failure modes, and model mismatch behave on real hardware.\n• A collaborative working style: shared design, constructive code review, proactive communication, and reliable coordination across control, estimation, simulation, low-level control, and hardware disciplines. Strong teamwork is essential for this role.\n\nNice to Have\n• Hands-on experience on humanoids, quadrupeds, or other high-DOF legged robots.\n• Familiarity with Pinocchio, MuJoCo, Crocoddyl, IPOPT, TSID, OCS2, or similar open-source tools.\n• Hierarchical QP, weighted QP, task prioritization, contact force optimization, or operational-space control.\n• Contact planning, gait optimization, balance recovery; CPG-based or hybrid CPG / MPC controllers.\n• Multi-contact WBC: foot contact, bimanual grasping, or base-arm coordination.\n• Contact-consistent dynamics and impact-aware control transitions.\n• Experience with torque-controlled robots and high-bandwidth electric actuation.\n• Publications at RSS, ICRA, IROS, or CoRL in legged locomotion or whole-body control.","responsibilities_text":null,"requirements_text":"• Hands-on experience on humanoids, quadrupeds, or other high-DOF legged robots.\n• Familiarity with Pinocchio, MuJoCo, Crocoddyl, IPOPT, TSID, OCS2, or similar open-source tools.\n• Hierarchical QP, weighted QP, task prioritization, contact force optimization, or operational-space control.\n• Contact planning, gait optimization, balance recovery; CPG-based or hybrid CPG / MPC controllers.\n• Multi-contact WBC: foot contact, bimanual grasping, or base-arm coordination.\n• Contact-consistent dynamics and impact-aware control transitions.\n• Experience with torque-controlled robots and high-bandwidth electric actuation.\n• Publications at RSS, ICRA, IROS, or CoRL in legged locomotion or whole-body control.","status":"open","duplicate_of":null,"first_seen":"2026-11-04T00:18:03.720805+00:00","responsibilities_summary":null,"requirements_summary":null,"all_tools":["C++","Python"],"posting_language":"en","evidence":[],"years_experience_max":null,"mobility_evidence":[],"model_version":"rules-8","english_badge":"English required","company_id":2275}