---
title: 'Senior Motor Controls Engineer at Lab37'
canonical: 'https://feeny.ai/job/senior-motor-controls-engineer-lab37-pittsburgh-6zc2k2jrne2f'
type: 'job'
last_seen: '2026-11-03'
---

# Senior Motor Controls Engineer at Lab37

- **Company:** Lab37
- **Location:** Pittsburgh, PA
- **Posted:** 2026-10-30
- **Last confirmed live:** 2026-11-03
- **Apply:** https://job-boards.greenhouse.io/lab37/jobs/8919917002

## Job description

## Who we are

[Lab37 Robotics](https://www.lab37.us/), is a technology company focused on the development and deployment of robots designed specifically for direct-to-customer food production. Our mission is to revolutionize the food industry by creating innovative robotic solutions that enhance efficiency, quality, and customer satisfaction. We are passionate about pushing the boundaries of technology to deliver cutting-edge products that meet the evolving needs of our clients.

## About the role

We build robots that prepare and assemble food in real production environments. We’re looking for a Senior Motor Controls Engineer to help define how our mechanisms move—and make those decisions work reliably in production.

You’ll explore how control strategies can improve the performance, reliability, and cost of robotic mechanisms. Working with a multidisciplinary team, you’ll assess what is possible, make the tradeoffs clear, and turn promising approaches into robust, supportable implementations.

You will be our primary motor-controls specialist within a team of mechanical, electrical, test, embedded, and robot software engineers. You’ll guide motor and actuation decisions alongside the mechanical engineering team, own the controls implementation, and collaborate across disciplines to validate performance and improve reliability.

## What you’ll do

- Partner with mechanical, electrical, and test engineers to recommend and evaluate motor and drive options. Determine when a different control strategy can meet performance and reliability requirements with a smaller or lower-cost actuator, then implement and validate the approach.
- Develop, integrate, and tune BLDC/PMSM and stepper control, including current/torque, velocity, and position loops. Choose appropriately between commercial drives, controller ICs, and custom firmware.
- Evaluate alternative control strategies and quantify their performance, cost, and reliability tradeoffs. Establish operating limits and margins with the team, and carry promising approaches through implementation and validation.
- Work with test, mechanical, and electrical engineers on instrumented experiments and automated tests. Contribute controls-specific measurements and analysis to characterize performance and validate behavior across operating conditions and component variation.
- Diagnose issues across controls, electronics, firmware, and mechanics—from resonance and lost motion to feedback errors, overheating, and intermittent faults—and drive corrective changes.
- Make systems easier to commission and support through calibration tools, validated configurations, useful telemetry, fault handling, design guidance, and clear documentation.

## What we are looking for

- Demonstrated ownership of motor-control solutions from development through production or sustained real-world operation, including hands-on BLDC/PMSM control and practical stepper experience.
- Strong applied controls fundamentals: motor physics, commutation and FOC, feedback selection, discrete-time control, loop stability and tuning, saturation, and the effects of friction, backlash, compliance, and resonance.
- Hands-on embedded C/C++ capability and the ability to bring up and debug motor-control hardware. You can reason about PWM/ADC timing, current sensing, encoders, real-time execution, and motor-driver interfaces.
- An experimental approach: you use motion data, analysis tools, and oscilloscopes to test hypotheses, quantify margins, and distinguish electrical, mechanical, and software issues and causes.
- Independent engineering judgment and collaborative decision-making. You can assess feasibility, quantify tradeoffs, explain when a control strategy or hardware change is justified, and implement the agreed solution.
- Clear communication and durable ownership. You surface risks early, follow failures through to prevention, collaborate across disciplines, and leave behind tools and knowledge that make others effective.

Helpful, but not required

- Experience designing and delivering custom motor controllers or servo drives from the ground up, including hardware architecture, embedded firmware, control algorithms, and production validation and support.
- CAN/CANopen or comparable industrial drive interfaces; motor power-stage integration, regenerative-energy management, or EMC troubleshooting.
- Robotics, appliances, food equipment, or other cost-sensitive electromechanical products with demanding duty cycles and field-service needs.
- We value demonstrated engineering results and sound judgment over a particular degree, vendor ecosystem, or exact number of years of experience.

## Why join us

- Demand for online food delivery is growing really fast! In the last 5 years, just in the US, the overall market has expanded 10X from $10B to $100B, and could expand to $500bn- $1T by 2030.
- Changing the restaurant industry: You’ll be part of a team that helps restaurants succeed in online food delivery.
- Collaborative environment: You will receive support and guidance from experienced colleagues and managers, helping you to learn, grow and achieve your goals, and you’ll work closely with other teams to ensure our customer’s success.

What else you need to know

This role is based in our Pittsburgh office. As a company driven by invention and continuous change - we are constantly reimagining our industries, building new products, and refining how we operate. We do our best work together. That’s why all of our office-based teams work onsite, five days a week.

The base salary range for this role is $158,000 - $218,000 per year.

Actual compensation will be determined on an individual basis and may vary depending on experience, skills, and qualifications.

Base salary is just one part of your total rewards package. You may also be eligible for equity awards and an annual performance-based bonus.

Benefits Summary (USA Full-Time Exempt Employees):

- Medical, dental, and vision insurance (multiple plans, incl. HSA options).
- Company-paid life and disability insurance (short- and long-term).
- Voluntary insurance: accident, critical illness, hospital indemnity.
- Optional supplemental life insurance for self, spouse, and children.
- Pet insurance discount.
- 401(k).
- Health Savings Account (HSA)
- Flexible Spending Accounts (Healthcare, Dependent Care, Commuter)
- Time Off policies:
- Discretionary vacation days
- 8 paid holidays per year
- Paid sick time
- Paid Bereavement leave
- Paid Parental Leave

Benefits are subject to change at the company's discretion. Atoms accepts applications on an ongoing basis.

Ready to join us as we serve those who serve others?

#LI-Onsite

## About Lab37

## Company Overview
- **One-liner**: Lab37 builds robotic kitchen systems that automate food assembly, starting with the Bowl Builder for makeline operations, to help restaurants reduce labor, increase throughput, and deliver consistent quality at scale.
- **Entity Type**: Private (subsidiary of City Storage Systems; no disclosed funding rounds)
- **Headquarters**: Warrendale, PA (near Pittsburgh, PA)
- **Founded**: 2005 (founding team formed at Carnegie Mellon's Robotics Institute, lab G37)
- **Founders**: Not publicly named (founding team from CMU Robotics Institute)

## Core Business
- Primary industry: Food robotics / kitchen automation / food service technology
- Target customers: B2B – restaurants, ghost kitchens, food businesses (enterprise and multi-location operators)
- Mission: "Use technology to improve the physical world in ways people can feel" and "build robots for better food" – making high-quality, affordable food accessible to everyone through automation.

## Products & Services
- **[Bowl Builder](https://www.lab37.us/)**: A robotic makeline system that automates the assembly of bowls and similar meals. It handles live order assembly from bowl dispense to bag close, adapts to customizations (adding/removing ingredients, allergens, portion adjustments), and claims up to 50% labor savings while doubling output. Type: Hardware (robotic kitchen equipment) with integrated software.

## Market Standing
- **Valuation/Market Cap**: Not disclosed (subsidiary of City Storage Systems, a private holding company)
- **Key Metric**: Already deployed in commercial kitchens, serving thousands of customers weekly (as of June 2026)
- **Notable Investors/Partners**: City Storage Systems (parent company); sister companies include CloudKitchens, Otter, and Picnic. No external investors publicly listed.
- **Growth Signals**: Active hiring across multiple engineering roles; expanding from initial product (Bowl Builder) into broader kitchen ecosystem; rapid iteration capability (whiteboard to prototype in hours); real-world commercial deployments.

## Competitive Advantages
- **Full-stack R&D under one roof**: In-house fabrication shop, electrical engineering lab, testing facilities, and R&D kitchen enable rapid prototyping and iteration.
- **Ecosystem integration**: As part of City Storage Systems, Lab37 works alongside CloudKitchens (ghost kitchen infrastructure), Otter (restaurant tech), and Picnic (food automation) – creating a vertically integrated automation stack for food businesses.
- **Data-driven tuning**: Every gram, step, and variable is tracked and refined, allowing precision and consistency at scale.
- **Proven real-world impact**: Systems already operating in commercial kitchens, not just prototypes.

## Strategic Focus
- Scale Bowl Builder adoption across multi-location restaurant groups.
- Expand the kitchen ecosystem with additional robotic modules and software.
- Continue to reduce labor dependency and operational chaos for food businesses.
- Leverage data from real kitchens to improve automation algorithms.

## Why Work Here
- **Engineering freedom**: "Whiteboard to working prototype in hours" – engineers build, test, and iterate with their own hands in a maker's paradise (full fabrication shop, electrical lab, testing facilities).
- **Immediate impact**: Work is deployed in real kitchens serving thousands of customers weekly; employees see their work making a difference quickly.
- **Culture**: Described as a place where "culinary innovation meets world class engineering" – cross-disciplinary collaboration between robotics, software, hardware, and culinary teams.
- **Locations**: Warrendale, PA and Pittsburgh, PA (on-site roles). No explicit remote/hybrid policy stated.
- **Perks**: Not detailed publicly, but the facility includes a fully equipped R&D kitchen, modern fabrication shop, and engineering offices built for rapid innovation.

## Sources
1. [lab37.us](https://www.lab37.us/) – Main site with product and company overview
2. [lab37.us/careers](https://www.lab37.us/careers) – Careers page with culture and mission
3. [lab37.us/lab](https://www.lab37.us/lab) – Lab facilities and ecosystem description
4. [lab37.us/history-timeline](https://www.lab37.us/history-timeline) – Company history and founding story
5. [lab37.breezy.hr](https://lab37.breezy.hr/) – Job openings and locations

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