Control and Automation Engineer, PAT Systems

Our client is an innovative and fast-growing technology company developing advanced optical communication and photonics-based systems for highly demanding applications.

As part of the growth of its engineering activities, we are looking for a Control and Automation Engineer, PAT Systems.

Reporting to the R&D and Engineering teams, you will contribute to the development of Pointing, Acquisition and Tracking (PAT) systems for advanced Free-Space Optical (FSO) communication products.

PAT is a key function in laser communication systems: two terminals must identify each other, acquire the link and maintain a highly accurate beam alignment while the underlying platform is moving and subject to vibration. This role sits at the intersection of control theory, optics, precision mechanics, sensors and real-time embedded computing.

Working closely with the Pointing and Telecommunications Architect, you will own the control layer of the PAT chain from system models and control-law design to real-time implementation, bench testing and performance correlation. You will take your designs into hardware and validate their behaviour on real systems.

• Control Law Design: Design, tune and validate control laws for fine and coarse pointing loops. Apply loop shaping and state-space techniques, including notch filters, resonators, feed-forward control, disturbance rejection and handover between fast and slow steering stages.

• Precision Servo Control: Develop velocity and position-control functions for precision pointing mechanisms. Address non-ideal physical effects such as friction, stick-slip behaviour at low speed, actuator non-linearities, hysteresis, dead bands and multi-axis synchronisation.

• System Modelling & Simulation: Build plant models covering actuators, structural dynamics and sensors. Develop end-to-end simulations of the complete pointing chain, integrating realistic disturbance spectra, delays, measurement noise and platform dynamics. Run Monte Carlo analyses to assess robustness and performance probability.

• Kinematics & Geometry: Develop and maintain line-of-sight decomposition models, forward and inverse kinematics for steering mechanisms, calibration maps and reference-frame transformations from the platform down to the detector.

• Acquisition Strategy: Define and optimise search and acquisition strategies, including scan patterns, dwell times, detection thresholds in noisy environments, acquisition probability, expected acquisition duration and transition to stable closed-loop tracking.

• Pointing Error Budgets: Build, maintain and defend pointing-error budgets. Decompose the overall error into its contributors, allocate requirements across the control chain and substantiate performance through analysis and measurement.

• Real-Time Embedded Implementation: Implement control algorithms on target hardware, using bare-metal or RTOS-based embedded C. Contribute to real-time architecture decisions, including sampling rates, timing, latency budgets, synchronisation and timestamping.

• Bench Testing & Correlation: Develop and operate breadboards and test benches. Measure open-loop and closed-loop performance, frequency responses, disturbance rejection and residual jitter under controlled perturbations. Investigate model-to-test discrepancies and update models accordingly.

• System Integration: Work closely with optical, mechanical, electrical, embedded software and system engineering teams to ensure that controls, sensors, actuators and optical performance are integrated coherently.

• Education: Master’s degree or Engineering degree in Automation, Mechatronics, Robotics, Electrical Engineering or a related discipline. Equivalent practical experience may also be considered.

• Professional Background: You have designed, implemented and measured at least one closed-loop control system on real hardwarecsuch as a precision stage, robotic system, stabilised payload, drone, optical bench or motion-control system.

• Technical Expertise:

  • Strong proficiency in MATLAB/Simulink or an equivalent control design and simulation environment.

  • Solid command of classical and modern control techniques, including loop shaping, state-space control, stability-margin analysis, filtering, feed-forward control and disturbance rejection.

  • Experience modelling dynamic systems, including actuators, structures, sensors, delays, noise and non-linearities.

  • Ability to perform or support system identification and to correlate dynamic models with experimental measurements.

  • Practical understanding of precision actuator behaviour, including friction, stick-slip, hysteresis, dead bands, saturation and non-linear drive effects.

  • Knowledge of forward and inverse kinematics, calibration procedures and coordinate/reference-frame transformations

  • Experience with estimation and filtering techniques, such as Kalman filtering or observer-based approaches, is appreciated.

  • Proficiency in embedded C and the ability to deploy control functions on microcontroller, SoC or similar processing targets.

  • Understanding of real-time software constraints, including deterministic execution, sampling, latency, timing and timestamping. Experience with RTOS environments is a plus.

• Test & Measurement Skills: Comfortable working hands-on in the laboratory, including measuring frequency responses, vibration spectra, jitter and closed-loop performance. You understand that a control model must be challenged and validated by measured data.

• Relevant Industry Experience: Experience in optical pointing, adaptive optics, spacecraft attitude control, stabilised optronics, robotics, precision motion control, drones or high-performance mechatronic systems would be highly valued.

• Additional Skills: Experience with camera or detector in the loop sensing, centroiding, vibration measurement, spectral analysis, FPGA/SoC data paths or pointing error budget methodologies would be a strong advantage.

• Mindset: You combine strong theoretical foundations in control with a practical engineering mindset. You enjoy closing the loop on real hardware, diagnosing unexpected dynamic behaviour and turning experimental results into robust, deployable control solutions.

• English: Professional working proficiency in English, with the ability to write technical documentation and communicate effectively with international suppliers, partners and engineering teams.