Robotics Simulation Engineer

We are seeking a Simulation Engineer to join one of our clients’ founding teams. You’ll own the process of turning messy, real-world robotics systems into accurate, validated simulations that our customers can trust. This is a deeply hands-on, 0→1 role where your work directly unlocks new customers and expands our platform’s capabilities.

You should thrive in ambiguity, enjoy working closely with customers, and be excited about building simulations that are grounded in physics and validated against real-world data.

What You’ll Do

• Own the end-to-end onboarding of customer systems, translating physical robots, sensors, and environments into Antioch’s simulation platform.
• Build and calibrate high‑fidelity simulation models for sensing modalities such as cameras, lidar, and radar from first principles.
• Work hands-on and on-site with customers to tune and calibrate simulations from ~80% to near 100% accuracy.
• Define, implement, and run test plans to quantitatively validate simulation fidelity against real-world logs and datasets.
• Develop internal tools, automation, and workflows in Python to make calibration, testing, and onboarding repeatable and scalable.
• Collaborate closely with the founding team to shape simulation standards, best practices, and core platform capabilities.

Ideal Candidate Profile

Seniority & Background

• 2–8 years of experience in robotics or hardware simulation (academic or professional).
• Clear signal of excellence: top school, top companies, high-growth startups, notable projects, or competition/hackathon wins.
• Experience as an individual contributor building and owning simulations—not just supervising others.

Technical Requirements

• Hands-on, end‑to‑end experience building and calibrating hardware simulations for sensors (e.g., cameras, lidars, radars, non‑visible sensing systems such as infrared/thermal or UV).
• Experience with NVIDIA Isaac Sim / Omniverse (Isaac Sim/Lab strongly preferred; Mujoco or Gazebo acceptable with a clear path to ramp up).
• Strong Python skills for data analysis, testing, automation, and internal tooling.
• Demonstrated deep ownership of at least one sensor or system simulation from initial modeling through calibration and validation.
• Experience programming in Rust and/or C++ is a strong plus.
• Familiarity with Kubernetes and modern cloud-based tooling is a plus.

Education

• Bachelor’s degree in Mechanical, Robotics, Electrical, Mechatronics, or a closely related field.
• Master’s or PhD preferred, but can be offset by strong, relevant professional experience.
• High academic performance (3.7–4.0 GPA) is a plus.

Soft Skills & Mindset

• High-agency builder excited by early-stage, intense startup environments.
• Personable and strong communicator, comfortable working directly with customers and cross-functional teams.
• Bias toward depth over breadth and toward validated, quantitative outcomes (fidelity metrics, error bounds, etc.).
• Excited to work in-person 5 days per week in NYC with the founding team.