Senior Simulation & Autonomy Engineer
Job Location:
San Diego, CA - USA
Monthly Salary:
Posted on:
Vacancies:
Job Summary
Senior Simulation & Autonomy Engineer
Integration State Estimation & Perception
Location: | San Diego CA (on-site or hybrid) |
Compensation: | $185000/year |
Employment Type: | Full-Time |
Citizenship: | US Citizenship required; background check and drug screen required |
Role Summary
Lead the integration of autonomy codebases into synthetic testbeds and hardware-in-the-loop (HITL) setups for unmanned surface vessels (USVs). Build simulators that exercise onboard autonomy sensors and control loops end-to-end.
Key Responsibilities
Integrate autonomy software navigation planning control and perception pipelines with simulators and CI/HITL test infrastructure.
Design implement and maintain physics-consistent synthetic environments that align dynamics sensor models state-estimation and render/update loops for realistic closed-loop testing.
Develop and validate sensor models (GNSS IMU DVL radar lidar camera) and measurement noise models; tune them against real-vehicle logs.
Implement and test state estimation (EKF/UKF/particle filters) and perception algorithms in the loop; quantify performance and failure modes.
Create repeatable test scenarios automated test harnesses and performance metrics for autonomy regression testing.
Collaborate with software controls and UX teams to ensure simulation outputs match onboard expectations and support debugging via replay logging and visualization.
Support CI pipelines: containerized sims scenario libraries test orchestration and result dashboards.
Mentor junior engineers; produce documentation and reproducible experiment artifacts.
Required Qualifications
BS or MS in Robotics Computer Science Electrical Engineering Mechanical Engineering or equivalent.
5 years of experience in robotics autonomy or software integration with demonstrable work on simulation and state estimation.
Strong C and/or Python proficiency; experience with ROS/ROS2 and/or middleware used in robotics systems.
Hands-on experience with state estimation tools (EKF/UKF/particle filters) sensor fusion and perception stacks.
Experience building or integrating simulators (Gazebo Webots MuJoCo Unity/Unreal integrations custom C/Python sim).
Strong understanding of rigid-body dynamics numerical integration and discrete-time control loops.
Experience with version control CI/CD Docker and automated testing frameworks.
Comfortable working with real vehicle logs calibrations and sensor synchronization.
Nice-to-Have
Prior USV or maritime robotics experience.
Experience with hardware-in-the-loop (HIL/HITL) and real-time systems.
Familiarity with Unreal Engine or Unity for high-fidelity simulation.
Experience with GPU-based sensor simulation (ray tracing lidar simulation).
Experience with data visualization and UI integrations for test playback.
Culture & Soft Skills
Clear communicator; collaborative with product and UX teams.
Pragmatic engineer who prioritizes reproducible measurable tests.
Comfortable operating in a startup or hardware-in-the-loop environment.
