About Hark
Hark is an artificial intelligence company building advanced, personalized intelligence. One that is proactive, multimodal, and capable of interacting with the world through speech, text, vision, and persistent memory.
We're pairing that intelligence with next-generation hardware to create a universal interface between humans and machines. While today's AI largely operates through chat boxes and decade-old devices, Hark is focused on what comes next: agentic systems that interact naturally with people and the real world.
To get there, we're developing multimodal models and next-generation AI hardware together - designed from the ground up as a single, unified interface for a new era of intelligent systems.
About the Role
We're looking for a Motor Control Engineer to design and optimize the electromechanical systems at the heart of our AI hardware products. You'll develop motor drive architectures, control algorithms, and firmware for brushless DC and stepper motors, working closely with our mechanical and embedded teams to deliver precise, efficient, and quiet actuation.
Responsibilities
- Motor Selection: Evaluate and select BLDC, stepper, and voice coil motors based on torque, speed, power, and form factor requirements.
- Drive Design: Design motor drive circuits including gate drivers, H-bridges, current sense, and protection circuitry.
- Control Algorithms: Develop and tune Field-Oriented Control (FOC), sensorless commutation, and position/velocity control loops in firmware.
- Acoustic Optimization: Minimize audible noise and vibration through PWM frequency selection, current shaping, and mechanical damping strategies.
- Power Efficiency: Optimize drive efficiency across the operating envelope, including low-power standby and sleep modes for battery-powered devices.
- Simulation: Build motor and drive system models in MATLAB/Simulink or equivalent to predict performance and validate control strategies.
- Lab Validation: Conduct bench testing with dynamometers, current probes, and accelerometers to characterize motor performance and verify specs.
Requirements
- Education: BS/MS in Electrical Engineering, Mechatronics, or Controls Engineering.
- FOC Expertise: Hands-on experience implementing Field-Oriented Control on ARM Cortex-M or similar embedded platforms.
- Drive Electronics: Strong understanding of power stage design, gate driver selection, and current sensing techniques for motor drives.
- Firmware: Proficiency in embedded C/C++ for real-time motor control applications, including interrupt-driven architectures.
- Instrumentation: Comfortable with dynamometers, power analyzers, oscilloscopes, and acoustic measurement equipment.
Bonus Qualifications
- Experience with haptic actuators (LRA, ERM, piezo) and haptic drive ICs.
- Background in precision motion control for robotics, gimbal systems, or medical devices.
- Familiarity with motor control ICs from TI (DRV series), ST (STSPIN), or Trinamic.
- Experience with model-based design and automatic code generation from Simulink.
The pay offered for this position may vary based on several individual factors, including job-related knowledge, skills, and experience. The total compensation package may also include additional components/benefits depending on the specific role. This information will be shared if an employment offer is extended.
