Senior​/Robotics and Controls Engineer

Reports to: Manager of Robotics and Controls

Workplace Type: Hybrid (onsite average of 3 days/week in Santa Cruz and new Bay Area office near West Menlo Park).

At Capstan Medical, we’re building one of the most exciting and innovative companies in medtech—developing a first-of-its-kind robotic platform for minimally invasive heart valve treatment. 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.

Based in Santa Cruz, our unique workspace blends cutting-edge Bay Area innovation with a lifestyle-driven environment near trails, beaches, and open space—creating the perfect place to do meaningful, career-defining work.

• Design, implement, and verify robotic control algorithms for Capstan’s
  catheter-based surgical platform — kinematics, dynamics, teleoperation,
  and motion control.
• 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
  algorithms that translate surgeon intent into safe, precise catheter motion.
• Design and execute characterization studies on actuators, tendon
  transmissions, and full system performance; translate experimental results
  into models, parameters, and acceptance criteria.
• Define algorithm-level performance specifications and hazard-driven fault
  detection thresholds; partner with Systems and Quality to support design
  verification and regulatory submissions
• Translate clinical and user needs into design requirements, prototype
  rapidly on real hardware, and carry features through verification to
  product launch
• Drive technical direction for path planning, catheter control, or robotics
  algorithms across multiple hardware programs (increased level of
  architectural ownership and cross-program scope for Staff)
• Mentor engineers on the team, lead design reviews, and contribute to
  hiring and onboarding (increased level of mentorship for Staff)
• Document your work through design reviews and released DHF
  documentation, and identify gaps and pitch in as needed to keep the team
  moving

• 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, feed forward, 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; you can design the experiment, run it, analyze the data, and turn it into a model.
• Close-to-hardware sensibility: encoders, motor controllers, force sensors, brakes, IMUs -- you understand the gap between textbook systems and real ones
• Strong object-oriented design instincts, with the discipline to factor algorithm code so it can be unit-tested, reviewed, and maintained as the team scales
• Medical robotics or safety-critical systems background -- you know why "it works in sim" or "it works most of the time" isn't good enough
• Understanding of how early design decisions cascade into downstream cost; ability to make smart calls on clinical workflow, regulation, and risk management to save time and effort later

• BS/MS in Robotics, Mechanical Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Computer Science, or equivalent; MS or PhD preferred
• 5+ years (Senior) or 8+ years (Staff) of hands-on robotics or controls…