Mechatronics & Control Engineer

Location: Turin, Italy

Full-Time

Salary Range: €40,000 - €60,000

Join ORiS and help build the future of energy in space.

At ORiS, we are building the technologies that will power the next generation of space missions. Through laser-based wireless power transmission, we aim to overcome the energy limitations of today’s satellites and enable longer, more capable, and more resilient operations in orbit.

We are looking for a Mechatronics & Control Engineer to design, model, and validate the control systems behind ORiS’s precision pointing and tracking platforms.

You will work on both spaceborne and ground-based systems, including the multi-stage pointing architecture of our inter-satellite laser payload and the electromechanical tracking platform of LOONA. Your work will focus on system dynamics, actuator control, stabilization, disturbance rejection, motion profiles, and the interaction between mechanical hardware, sensors, electronics, and control software.

Working closely with the Mechanical, GNC, Electronics, Optical, Software, and Systems Engineering teams, you will help translate pointing and motion requirements into reliable control architectures and experimentally validated solutions.

What You Will Do

• Develop dynamic models of mechatronic systems, including pointing mechanisms, gimbals, actuators, structural elements, sensors, and payload assemblies.
• Design and validate feedback-control algorithms for position, velocity, stabilization, and line-of-sight pointing.
• Contribute to the development of coarse, intermediate, and fine-pointing control architectures for the inter-satellite laser payload.
• Develop motion-control solutions for LOONA’s azimuth and elevation platform, including tracking, stabilization, and disturbance rejection.
• Define control requirements, performance budgets, actuator sizing, sensor requirements, and operating limits.
• Model the effects of friction, backlash, structural flexibility, vibrations, actuator saturation, sensor noise, and external disturbances.
• Develop simulations using MATLAB/Simulink, Simscape, Python, or equivalent tools.
• Support the selection and integration of motors, encoders, inertial sensors, drives, gearboxes, and precision actuators.
• Implement and tune control algorithms on prototypes and real hardware in collaboration with embedded-software and electronics engineers.
• Perform system identification, controller tuning, frequency-response analysis, and experimental correlation of simulation models.
• Develop Model-in-the-Loop, Software-in-the-Loop, and Hardware-in-the-Loop test environments.
• Participate in laboratory testing, hardware integration, field trials, and system verification activities.
• Analyse test data and contribute to the resolution of mechanical, control, and system-level performance issues.
• Maintain technical documentation, simulation models, control specifications, and verification evidence.

What We Are Looking For

• MSc in Mechatronics, Automation, Control, Mechanical, Aerospace, Robotics Engineering, or a related field.
• Strong knowledge of classical and modern control theory, system dynamics, modelling, and feedback systems.
• Experience with MATLAB/Simulink and dynamic-system simulation.
• Understanding of mechanical systems, actuators, sensors, motors, transmissions, and electromechanical integration.
• Knowledge of control techniques such as PID, feedforward control, state-space control, filtering, and state estimation.
• Ability to analyse time-domain and frequency-domain system performance.
• Experience developing, testing, or tuning control algorithms on physical hardware.
• Familiarity with Python or C/C++ for simulation, testing, data analysis, or control implementation.
• Strong analytical and problem-solving skills.
• Ability to work effectively across mechanical, electronic, software, optical, and systems-engineering teams.
• Professional proficiency in English.

Nice to Have

• Experience with precision pointing systems, gimbals, optical terminals, telescopes, fast-steering mirrors, or line-of-sight stabilization.
• Knowledge of spacecraft attitude and pointing control, GNC, or spaceborne mechanisms.
• Experience with BLDC motors, servo motors, stepper motors, piezoelectric actuators, motor drives, and encoder feedback.
• Knowledge of structural dynamics, vibration analysis, flexible-body modelling, or control-structure interaction.
• Experience with Simscape Multibody, Modelica, Amesim, or equivalent physical-modelling tools.
• Familiarity with embedded real-time control, microcontrollers, FPGAs, or automatic code generation from Simulink.
• Experience with system identification, Kalman filtering, sensor fusion, or disturbance-observer techniques.
• Familiarity with Hardware-in-the-Loop testing and real-time simulation platforms.
• Knowledge of ECSS standards, space qualification, or aerospace verification processes.
• Experience in aerospace, defence, robotics, automotive, or other high-performance mechatronic systems.

Why ORiS

• Work on innovative satellite missions and advanced space technologies
• Play a key role in shaping system-level decisions that directly impact mission success
• Collaborate with highly skilled engineers across multiple technical disciplines
• Gain exposure to cutting-edge space programs and emerging technologies
• Grow professionally within a fast-growing and ambitious space company
• Be part of a culture driven by innovation, ownership, and technical excellence

Our Offer

• Salary Range: € 40,000 – €60,000 (depending on experience)
• EUR 1,000 per year in fringe benefits
• EUR 8 meal vouchers per working day
• Flexible smart working arrangements, subject to project needs
• Stock option plan

If you want to help create the future of energy in space and contribute to technologies that could transform the way humanity operates beyond Earth, join ORiS.