Freelance Simulation Software Engineer Jobs in Chicago, IL

What's the role?
We are hiring a Senior Simulation Engineer to own core simulation and geospatial systems that support advanced AI, perception, and mapping products. This person will work across simulation environments, map-derived scene construction, actor behavior, sensor and condition generation, and the systems needed to make these capabilities reliable at production quality.
This is a senior hands-on role for someone who can build robust technical foundations that remain useful across simulation-driven AI programs, not just a single initiative.
What You Will Own
- Own critical pieces of the simulation and geospatial systems stack
- Build and maintain simulation pipelines for scene construction, actor behavior, sensor or condition generation, and related tooling
- Define reliable environment and scenario setup for both prototype and production use cases
- Ensure scene structure is technically sound, scalable, and faithful to upstream map or scenario inputs
- Partner with data scientists and platform engineers to make simulation outputs usable for inference, evaluation, and production workflows
What You Will Do
- Build tooling for ingesting, validating, and operationalizing map or scenario inputs into simulation systems
- Resolve scene construction, routing, drivability, actor-behavior, and environmental fidelity issues
- Configure scenario generation, actor control, camera behavior, and related simulation outputs for repeatable and scalable operation
- Generate packaged simulation outputs with the metadata needed for reproducibility, evaluation, and production traceability
- Troubleshoot simulation failures such as unstable actors, broken topology, invalid map elements, or poor output fidelity
- Contribute to the roadmap for broader coverage, richer scenarios, and production-quality simulation operations
Who are you?
What We Are Looking For
- Strong experience with simulators, robotics simulation, game engines, or scene-generation systems
- Experience working with map formats, routing graphs, geospatial data, or autonomous-system simulation stacks
- Strong Python and systems debugging skills
- Ability to balance realism, stability, scalability, and delivery speed in an evolving product setting
- Comfort operating independently in an ambiguous technical program
Education & Experience
- Master's or PhD in Computer Science, AI, Machine Learning, or related field.
- 3-5 years of experience in deep learning, computer vision, or multimodal AI.
Nice To Have
- Experience with traffic behavior modeling, sensor configuration, condition-representation generation, scenario generation, or map-grounded simulation
- Familiarity with autonomous-system data pipelines, geospatial tooling, or synthetic-data production flows
- Experience with Unreal Engine or related simulation environments
The expected base salary range for this position is $130,000 to $140,000 per year. Actual compensation will be based on factors such as skills and experience. This position is also eligible for an annual performance bonus, which is subject to company and individual performance.
Life at HERE comes with generous benefits to support your health and overall wellness. Benefits available to US-based HERE employees include health (Medical/Dental/Vision) insurance, retirement savings plans, paid time off & leave policies.
As part of HERE Technologies employment process, candidates will be required to successfully complete a background verification process. Offers of employment and any related claims are subject to the successful completion of a background verification. Pursuant to the San Francisco Fair Chance Ordinance and the Los Angeles Fair Chance Initiative for Hiring, HERE will consider for employment qualified applicants with arrest and conviction records.
HERE is an equal opportunity employer. We evaluate qualified applicants without regard to race, color, age, gender identity, sexual orientation, marital status, parental status, religion, sex, national origin, disability, veteran status, and other legally protected characteristics.
Under Section 503 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 and VEVRAA, we have developed an affirmative action program (AAP) for individuals with disabilities and protected veterans. Portions of the AAP are available for review by applicants and employees through our People Team.
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Who are we?
HERE Technologies is a location data and technology platform company. We empower our customers to achieve better outcomes - from helping a city manage its infrastructure or a business optimize its assets to guiding drivers to their destination safely.
At HERE we take it upon ourselves to be the change we wish to see. We create solutions that fuel innovation, provide opportunity and foster inclusion to improve people's lives. If you are inspired by an open world and driven to create positive change, join us. Learn more about us on our YouTube Channel.