Controls Engineering Lead

At Earth, we believe how we say farewell matters. Our mission is to transform the end-of-life experience by offering families a beautiful, sustainable alternative to cremation and burial.

Instead of traditional methods that harm the environment, our gentle, natural process transforms a body into nutrient-rich soil in just 45 days – returning life to the earth and leaving a meaningful legacy. Families can choose to receive the soil to scatter, plant, or share, while the remainder is thoughtfully donated to conservation projects that restore and heal our planet.

This process—sometimes called soil transformation or natural organic reduction (NOR)—is powered by our proprietary vessel technology, which carefully recreates the conditions found in nature. By balancing carbon, nitrogen, oxygen, and water—while precisely controlling temperature and moisture—we’re able to transform bodies gently and naturally.

First legalized in Washington State in 2019, this practice is rapidly gaining popularity nationwide. Earth is the national leader in soil transformation, backed by major investors, and growing fast.

We’re seeking a Controls Engineering Lead to own the control behavior of Earth’s soil transformation vessels — the layer where physics, biology, and automation meet.

This is a senior technical leadership role, responsible for the control logic that powers our vessels and ensures consistent, safe, and scalable behavior across our vessels.

This is not a generalist software role and not a SCADA/platform role. It is a controls-first position focused on system modeling, control strategy, and execution reliability.

The Controls Lead will serve as the technical team lead for the Controls group and act as the primary integrator for control behavior across hardware, firmware, software, and science. The Controls group is responsible for building the control system that unites firmware, hardware, and supervisory software into one coherent, resilient platform.

As the Controls Engineering Lead, you’ll help design and refine the technology that makes soil transformation possible. You will be a hands-on technical contributor as well as a leader who shapes the technical vision and execution of the controls system across disciplines.

The systems you build will ensure every vessel operates with precision, safety, and care — returning life to the soil, conserving resources, and scaling a more sustainable model for the world.

You will:

Collaborate cross-functionally with Science, Hardware, and Operations to translate biological process requirements into automatable control strategies and algorithms.

Define control system requirements across Hardware, Firmware, and Software, and partner with Product to develop the vision and roadmap for the Controls group.

Drive successful execution of the Controls group roadmap across disciplines:

Define and maintain clear interfaces between control logic, firmware, supervisory orchestration software, and HMI layers, ensuring clarity and decoupling across system boundaries

Partner with Hardware and Firmware to ensure sensors, actuators, and embedded implementations support required control behavior

Partner with Software to ensure local and supervisory control implementation is accurate, reliable, and observable.

Own the control system architecture for the vessel execution layer (control logic, state machines, safety behavior), while collaborating with Firmware/Software on implementation details.

Develop and maintain frameworks to model, simulate, and validate system behavior prior to deployment, including edge cases and failure modes.

Support commissioning and iteration during vessel bring-up and facility rollouts

Mentor engineers across disciplines in controls thinking, system modeling, and safe automation practices

You are accountable for how the vessel behaves, not for building dashboards, cloud platforms, or general-purpose infrastructure.

You’re a controls engineer who:

Thinks in dynamics, constraints, and failure modes

Thrives at the intersection of hardware, software, science, and process automation

Enjoys working collaboratively across disciplines to make complex systems behave simply and reliably

You bring deep experience in control theory and control systems design, and are equally comfortable writing code, tuning loops, modeling dynamics, or walking a production floor to diagnose root causes.

You are comfortable being the controls authority in the room while still collaborating pragmatically with adjacent disciplines.

You enjoy making complex systems simple, reliable, and observable — and you’re motivated by the idea that your work directly helps regenerate the planet.

8+ years of experience in controls, automation, robotics, or similar physical systems

Strong foundation in classical control theory and practical control-system design (feedback, constraints, fault handling, state-based behavior)

Experience modeling, simulating, and validating dynamic systems

Experience defining and implementing control behavior that executes locally and safely without cloud dependency on both embedded and local edge environments

Proficiency in C++ and/or Python for control or embedded-adjacent development

Ability to reason clearly about failure modes, degraded operation, and recovery

Strong cross-functional communication skills across Hardware, Firmware, Software, Science, Product, and Operations

Strong ability to manage multiple priorities under time constraints and ensure complete, high-quality execution

Proven technical leader, collaborator, and communicator who can energize teams, challenge the status quo, and drive change

Degree in Engineering, Computer Science, Robotics, or related field — or equivalent practical experience

Experience with thermal, biological, or batch-process control systems

Experience with industrial communication protocols (MQTT, Modbus, CAN, OPC UA, etc.)

Experience with the calibration and tuning of sensors

Familiarity with HMI/SCADA or supervisory control systems

Familiarity with digital twins, hardware-in-the-loop testing, and real-time simulation

Familiarity with modern software development and DevOps practices (Git, CI/CD, Docker, Kubernetes)

Mission-driven work that makes a lasting impact

Competitive salary and equity package

Hybrid work environment (remote-friendly, Seattle preferred)

Medical, dental, and vision insurance

401(k) plan

Unlimited PTO

At Earth, our mission is to transform the end-of-life experience — creating a process that restores the planet instead of harming it.

If you’re inspired by solving complex technical challenges in service of something deeply human and profoundly environmental, we’d love to hear from you.