About the role
We are looking for a Robotics Controls Engineer with 3+ years of experience to design and tune the core control systems that enable 200+ ton autonomous haul trucks to operate safely in mining environments. You'll work on localization, path following, longitudinal and lateral control, and steering systems — solving uniquely challenging navigation and localization problems in remote, unstructured mining sites. This is a high-impact, engineering-first role at Atoms (formerly Pronto AI / CloudKitchens), where engineers drive decisions and ship real production systems. We have 100+ autonomous trucks in live operation today, and you'll be instrumental in scaling that further. Candidates with mining autonomy experience (e.g., Hexagon, Caterpillar, Komatsu) are especially valued, though strong autonomous vehicle backgrounds are also welcome.
What will you be doing?
- Design, implement, and tune control algorithms (MPC, PID) for autonomous haul trucks operating across varying payloads and terrain grades
- Develop state estimation and localization pipelines that fuse GPS/RTK, IMU, and other sensor modalities — including handling GPS dropouts in remote mining sites
- Analyze system performance through field testing on real trucks and log replay, debugging control issues and identifying root causes
- Collaborate with perception, planning, and hardware teams to integrate control systems into production autonomous vehicles
- Travel periodically (up to 15%) to customer mining sites for deployment, testing, and tuning
About Atoms
Atoms is building the machines that power the next era of progress. Founded by Travis Kalanick after leaving Uber, Atoms represents the consolidation of eight years of technology development across multiple divisions — bringing Physical AI to the industries that move civilization forward.
The company operates across three core verticals:
- Atoms Food (formerly CloudKitchens) — kitchen infrastructure and software empowering food & beverage operators to expand with minimal upfront capital
- Atoms Mining (formerly Pronto AI) — autonomous vehicles for heavy machinery, with 100+ trucks in live operation hauling millions of tons
- Atoms Transport — a new division scaling autonomous vehicle technology into existing OEM ecosystems for transportation
Atoms takes a modular, OEM-agnostic approach — integrating autonomous robotic technology into existing vehicles and equipment (Hitachi, Komatsu, Toyota, Hyundai) rather than replacing them. Both the food and mining divisions are live production ecosystems with real customers, not experimental or simulated environments.
The culture at Atoms is engineering-first. Engineers and engineering leaders make the primary decisions that impact the company — not operations or finance. This means regardless of level, engineers have outsized impact compared to traditional large tech companies. The work is ambitious, often challenging, and grounded in a shared sense of purpose to bring automation into the physical world.
Required skills
Other roles at Atoms
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Job details
Salary
$170,000 - $220,000
Location
San Francisco, United States
Experience
3+ years
Company
Funding
Total raised
$1.7B
Last stage
Growth
Investors
Founders
What happens next.
No applications, no recruiter spam. Just the intro.
Confirm the fit
A few questions to make sure this role is the right shape for you. Two minutes.
I pitch you to the company
I write the intro, send it to the founder, and handle the back-and-forth.
A meeting lands on your calendar
If they’re a yes, I book the chat. You show up — that’s the whole job-hunt.