Robotics Engineer - Planning and Control in London

Stax is hiring for a breakthrough robotics spin-out from Imperial College London that is redefining how robots learn. The company has developed a new imitation learning approach that enables robots to learn new manipulation skills in simulation and execute them successfully in the real world on the first attempt - removing the thousands of trial-and-error runs that have historically made robotics slow, fragile, and hard to scale. Backed by leading European deep-tech investors (£4m raised), the company is now assembling its founding engineering team as it moves from world-class research toward real-world commercial impact. This is a rare opportunity to join at the moment where deep research becomes real robots doing real work.

This is a hands-on, high-ownership role for an engineer who wants to work on genuinely hard robotics problems - not just simulations, demos, or incremental improvements. You will take full ownership of the robotics stack that interfaces directly with the company’s learning system, ensuring that learned policies don’t just work in theory, but translate into robust, repeatable physical behaviour on real robotic arms. Your work will directly shape how quickly breakthrough robot learning research becomes dependable, deployable robotic capability. From day one, you’ll have meaningful technical ownership, with a clear path toward senior or leadership responsibility as the company scales.

What You’ll Be Working On

• Real-World Robotics & Control

• Manipulation and motion control for robotic arms
• Motion planning, trajectory optimisation, and operational space control
• Deploying learned policies onto physical robots
• Integrating perception, simulation, and execution pipelines
• Working in a hardware-first, lab-based environment with real manipulators

• Designing and deploying ROS / ROS 2 systems
• Bridging simulation outputs with real-world constraints
• Building robustness, safety, and repeatability into physical execution

• Partnering closely with robot learning researchers and ML engineers
• Turning research prototypes into scalable, deployable systems
• Helping define the long-term architecture of a next-generation robotics platform

What Success Looks Like

• New skills execute reliably on physical robots from first deployment
• The robotics stack becomes a stable, reusable foundation for future products
• A dramatic reduction in time from research insight to real-world capability
• Tight, effective collaboration across learning, control, and hardware

The Ideal Candidate Profile

Must-Haves

• 2+ years of experience working with real robot manipulators (industry or PhD)
• Strong expertise in manipulation and motion control
• Hands-on experience with ROS / ROS 2
• Proven experience deploying systems on physical robotic arms
• Comfortable operating in an early-stage, fast-moving environment

Nice-to-Haves

• Experience with camera-based control or computer vision
• Exposure to learning-based or imitation learning systems
• Background in robotics research, spin-outs, or startups

Why This Is Special

• Founding-team role in a genuinely novel robotics company
• Backed by top-tier European deep-tech investors
• Meaningful equity and competitive compensation
• On-site access to real robots in a North London lab
• A rare chance to help define how robots are taught, not just how they move

This role is ideal for an engineer who thrives close to hardware, values deep technical ownership, and wants to help shape the foundations of a robotics company from the very beginning.

Interested?

If you’re excited by the challenge of turning cutting-edge robot learning research into reliable, real-world robotic capability, we’d love to speak with you. Please note: due to the anticipated volume of applications, we may only be able to respond to candidates selected for further consideration.