Research Engineer — Robotics Simulation & Evaluation

Maxinsights
Santa Clara, US
On-site

Who this role is best for

Geared toward candidates comfortable with building simulation environments for embodied AI and robotics research, with a preference for those experienced in scalable training workflows and sim-to-real validation.

Best fit for

  • Candidates with simulation platform experience and a background in robotics research or AI training systems
    — “Experience with at least one simulation platform, such as Isaac Sim, Isaac Lab, MuJoCo, or an equivalent framework”
  • Individuals who have developed reusable tools for large-scale experiments and evaluation pipelines
    — “Build reusable simulation tools and pipelines that improve experiment reproducibility and research efficiency”
  • Candidates who can validate simulation results against real-world robotic behavior and identify gaps
    — “Validate simulation results against real-world robot behavior and investigate discrepancies”

Things to consider

  • The role demands a strong focus on technical depth in simulation rather than just visual scene creation
    — “Candidates should demonstrate technical depth beyond visual scene creation alone”

How to stand out

  • Highlight experience with Isaac Sim, MuJoCo, or similar platforms in your resume and interview responses
    — “Work with platforms such as NVIDIA Isaac Sim, Isaac Lab, MuJoCo, or similar simulation frameworks”
  • Emphasize your ability to design reward functions and evaluation metrics for robotic tasks
    — “Develop robotic tasks, environments, reward functions, and evaluation metrics”
  • Showcase projects where you implemented domain randomization or sim-to-real transfer techniques
    — “Implement domain randomization and other techniques to improve policy robustness and sim-to-real transfer”
Pace · SteadyCollaboration · MediumAutonomy · MediumDecision Impact · Team

Derived from job-description analysis by Serendipath's career intelligence engine.

What success looks like

  • Built and maintained simulation environments
  • Developed robotic tasks and environments
  • Validated simulation results
Typical background
Experience in robotics simulation, robotics research, or simulation-based training

Skills & requirements

Required

Robotics SimulationPython ProgrammingSimulation PlatformsDebuggingExperimental Skills

Preferred

Domain RandomizationSensor SimulationScene ReconstructionSynthetic Data Generation

Stack & domain

Robotics SimulationTraining WorkflowsEvaluation SystemsEmbodied AIRoboticsNvidia Isaac SimIsaac LabMujocoSensor SimulationSynthetic Data GenerationScene ReconstructionProblem-solvingTeamworkDebuggingSimulationAI

About the role

Original posting from Maxinsights via Ashby

JOB DESCRIPTION:

JOB OVERVIEW

We are looking for a Research Engineer to build simulation environments, training workflows, and evaluation systems for embodied AI and robotics.

You will help create the virtual environments and tools that enable robotic policies to be trained, tested, and evaluated at scale before being deployed in the real world. Depending on your expertise, you may focus on simulation-based policy training and evaluation, or on scene reconstruction and synthetic data generation.

This role is ideal for an engineer with strong simulation or robotics experience who enjoys building technically grounded environments that support real learning and measurable improvements in robotic performance.

WHAT YOU WILL OWN

  • Build and maintain simulation environments for robot learning, training, and evaluation.
  • Develop robotic tasks, environments, reward functions, and evaluation metrics.
  • Work with platforms such as NVIDIA Isaac Sim, Isaac Lab, MuJoCo, or similar simulation frameworks.
  • Support simulation-based policy training and automated evaluation at scale.
  • Implement domain randomization and other techniques to improve policy robustness and sim-to-real transfer.
  • Develop sensor simulation, synthetic data generation, or scene reconstruction workflows as relevant to your specialization.
  • Validate simulation results against real-world robot behavior and investigate discrepancies.
  • Build reusable simulation tools and pipelines that improve experiment reproducibility and research efficiency.

REQUIRED QUALIFICATIONS

  • Experience in robotics simulation, robotics research, simulation-based training, or a related technical field.
  • Strong Python programming skills and familiarity with relevant robotics or simulation tools.
  • Experience with at least one simulation platform, such as Isaac Sim, Isaac Lab, MuJoCo, or an equivalent framework.
  • Understanding of robotic systems, 3D environments, physics simulation, or learning-based robotics.
  • Experience building functional simulation environments, training workflows, evaluation pipelines, or synthetic data systems.
  • Strong debugging and experimental skills, with the ability to validate whether simulation results reflect meaningful real-world behavior.

PREFERRED QUALIFICATIONS

  • Experience training or evaluating robotic policies in simulation.
  • Experience with domain randomization, sim-to-real transfer, or sensor simulation.
  • Experience with scene reconstruction, synthetic data generation, or physically grounded 3D environment creation.
  • Experience building reusable tools for large-scale simulation or automated evaluation.
  • Experience comparing simulation results with real-world robot performance.

Note: Candidates may specialize in either simulation-based policy training and evaluation or scene reconstruction and synthetic data generation. Experience across both areas is not required. However, candidates should demonstrate technical depth beyond visual scene creation alone.

DEFAULT BENEFITS:

  • Health insurance
  • Vision care
  • Dental coverage
  • 401(k)
  • Paid holidays
  • PTO (Paid Time Off)
  • Sick leave

Source: Maxinsights careers (Ashby)

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