Contract Robotic Simulation Engineer Jobs in California

FieldAI's Irvine team is where embodied AI meets real robots, real sensors, and real field deployments. Based in the heart of Southern California's robotics ecosystem, we build risk-aware, reliable, field-ready AI systems that solve the hardest problems in robotics and unlock the full potential of embodied intelligence. If you want your work to ship, get tested on hardware, and improve through real deployments, Irvine is the place. We go beyond typical data-driven approaches or pure transformer-only architectures, combining rigorous engineering with learning systems proven in globally deployed solutions that deliver results today and get better every time our robots run in the field.
About The Role
We are looking for a Robotics Simulation Software Engineer to build and improve Field AI's internal simulation tools used for autonomy development, debugging, and evaluation.
This role is for someone who goes beyond simply running simulators. We are looking for an engineer who can maintain and extend simulation systems, improve code quality and fidelity, debug simulator-to-robot gaps, and help turn real-world robot behavior into reproducible simulation scenarios.
You will work closely with autonomy, infrastructure, and field teams to make simulation a practical part of the development loop: reproduce field issues, improve autonomy, and validate robot behavior before returning to the field.
What You'll Get To Do

• Maintain, refactor, and improve internal robotics simulation tools and infrastructure.
• Improve simulation fidelity for autonomy evaluation, including robot behavior, sensor modeling, timing, terrain interaction, and environment representation.
• Build workflows for scenario execution, log replay, regression testing, metrics, and visualization.
• Develop real-to-sim workflows that turn field logs, reconstructed environments, and failure cases into reproducible simulation scenarios.
• Work with autonomy and field teams to identify and debug gaps between simulated and real robot behavior.
• Improve developer workflows around simulation performance, reproducibility, debugging, and test automation.
• Contribute to the long-term simulation strategy for legged robots and humanoids operating in complex real-world environments.

What You Have

• 3+ years of experience developing robotics simulation tools, simulation infrastructure, autonomy evaluation systems, or related robotics software.
• Strong software engineering skills in C++ and/or Python.
• Experience with simulation platforms such as Isaac Sim, Gazebo, MuJoCo, Unity, Unreal, or custom robotics simulators.
• Familiarity with ROS2 or similar robotics middleware, including sensors, transforms, logs, and timing.
• Experience with robot or simulation assets such as URDF, SDF, meshes, dynamics, or sensor models.
• Ability to debug simulator-to-robot gaps across sensing, timing, dynamics, and autonomy behavior.
• Comfortable working across research code, production robotics software, simulation infrastructure, and real-world robot deployment workflows.

What Will Set You Apart

• Experience developing simulator plugins, custom sensor models, physics extensions, terrain/contact models, or environment authoring tools.
• Experience with large-scale batch simulation, CI-based regression testing, deterministic replay, or scenario evaluation infrastructure.
• Experience using real-world robot data to validate, tune, or improve simulation models.
• Experience with software-in-the-loop, hardware-in-the-loop, log replay, or simulation correlation.
• Experience with legged robots, humanoids, field robotics, or robots operating in unstructured environments.
• Experience with Isaac Sim, Omniverse, USD, PhysX, ROS2, Docker, CMake, Bazel, or GitHub Actions.

$155,000 - $180,000 a year
Our salary range is generous and we consider each individual's background and experience when determining final compensation. Base pay may vary based on role scope, job-related knowledge, skills, experience, and the Irvine, California market.
Why Join FieldAI in Irvine?
In Irvine, you will work where the robots are. Our local team builds and tests systems on real hardware with real sensors, then ships them to operate in unstructured, previously unknown environments around the world. We are solving one of robotics' hardest challenges: reliable deployment outside the lab. Our Field Foundational Models™ raise the bar for perception, planning, localization, and manipulation, with an emphasis on explainability and safety for real-world use.
You will collaborate with a world-class team that thrives on creativity, resilience, and bold thinking. We bring deep experience from organizations such as DeepMind, NASA JPL, Boston Dynamics, NVIDIA, Amazon, Tesla Autopilot, Cruise, Zoox, Toyota Research Institute, and SpaceX, along with a track record of field deployments and strong performance in DARPA challenge segments.
Be Part of the Next Robotics Revolution
We are looking for builders who want their work to leave the whiteboard and show up on robots. If you enjoy tackling tough, uncharted questions and working across disciplines, you will find your people here. Our teams span AI, software, robotics engineering, product, field deployment, and technical communication, all focused on shipping systems that perform in the real world.
Our headquarters is in Irvine, and we partner closely with teams there as well as colleagues across the US and around the world. Join us in Southern California and help define what dependable, field-ready autonomy looks like.
We value diverse perspectives and are committed to fostering an inclusive workplace. We evaluate candidates and employees based on merit, qualifications, and performance, and we do not discriminate on the basis of race, color, gender, national origin, ethnicity, veteran status, disability status, age, sexual orientation, gender identity, marital status, or any other legally protected status.
We may use artificial intelligence (AI) tools to support parts of the hiring process, such as reviewing applications, analyzing resumes, or assessing responses and identifying potential inconsistencies or verification signals in application materials based on available information. These tools assist our recruitment team but do not replace human judgment. Final hiring decisions are ultimately made by humans. If you would like more information about how your data is processed, please contact us.