Senior Robotics Simulation Engineer

What good looks like

• In your first weeks, you're running the existing environment yourself, finding where it diverges from the physical MicroFactory, and forming a view on where simulation has the most leverage.
• Within your first month, another engineer can run a useful scenario without you configuring it for them.
• Within two months, there's a clear technical direction: what gets modelled, to what fidelity, and how it stays aligned as hardware changes.
• Simulation is routinely used to develop, test and make engineering decisions, not to produce demos.
• The environment keeps pace with changing hardware and software without becoming fragile or expensive to maintain.
• You know when fidelity is enough to answer the question and when physical testing is still required, and you don't gold-plate.

Who this is for

You're a senior robotics or simulation engineer who has built simulation environments for complex physical systems, and you know the gap between a simulation that looks convincing and one that is useful for engineering. You've worked where software, controls, mechanical systems, sensing and physics all interact, and you're comfortable going deep into a physics problem, debugging a ROS integration, or deciding a model isn't worth building at all.

You like owning technical infrastructure rather than contributing individual scenes. You think about architecture, maintainability and how other engineers will use what you build. You'll have real autonomy over the approach, alongside a robotics team that will use and challenge it.

If your simulation work has been about convincing visuals or research demos rather than tools other engineers depend on, or you'd rather be handed scenarios to build than decide what's worth modelling, this isn't the right role. The tooling you'd want handed to you is the tooling you'd be building.

What we're looking for

• NVIDIA Isaac Sim: significant hands-on experience building robotics simulation environments in it.
• Simulation physics: contacts, friction, joints, stiffness, damping and control parameters, and the ability to diagnose unstable or non-physical behaviour rather than tuning blindly.
• Strong Python, and fluency with Linux, Docker and Git.
• Integration with real robotics software: you've connected simulation to systems that actually run, with working knowledge of ROS 2 interfaces and workflows.
• CAD and 3D assets: engineering geometry in a robotics, manufacturing or automation context.
• Infrastructure other people use: simulation infrastructure a wider team could use and maintain, not only you.
• Judgement on fidelity: you know when a model is accurate enough, and can defend the trade-off between complexity and usefulness.
• Cross-discipline communication: you work clearly with robotics, controls and mechanical engineers, not just other simulation people.

Bonus if you have

• URDF and CAD-to-URDF/USD asset pipelines.
• Automated simulation testing, CI, or hardware/software-in-the-loop workflows.
• Industrial robots or automated manufacturing systems, and C++.
• MuJoCo or other simulation platforms, deeper PhysX knowledge, or deformable-body and compliant-joint modelling.
• ML training-data pipelines, domain randomisation, synthetic data generation or sim-to-real calibration, and cloud-based simulation infrastructure.

What we offer

• Competitive salary based on experience
• 28 bookable days + bank holidays + seasonal office closure
• Health and dental insurance via Bupa
• Pension via Smart Pensions
• An 11,000 sq ft R&D and demonstration facility in E17, where you work alongside the hardware your software drives, plus time on MicroFactory sites where it runs
• Share options so we all grow together
• High autonomy, high accountability, and a team of industry experts that takes the mission seriously

Our values

• #ownyourmission - we take responsibility and execute with focus and urgency.
• #forpeopleandplanet - we strive to do the best for people and planet.
• #buildtogether - we succeed through deep collaboration with our team, partners and customers.
• #gooddesign - we centre good design in everything we do, holistically.
• #beboldberadical - we think creatively; we are ambitious, bold and radical.

Application process

We expect the full hiring process to take around 4-5 weeks, and we aim to be as transparent as possible throughout.

• Initial Application - a human will review your CV & full application
• Hiring Manager Call (30-45 mins, remote) - with Gilles Retsin (CTPO/Co-founder) OR Tom d'Arcy (Head of Robotics & Deployment)
• Task-based Working Session & Values Interview (60-90 mins, in-person) - you'll be given a real AUAR challenge to tackle in your own time and present to a panel of AUAR team members. We'll also discuss our Values.
• Final Founder Interview (30 mins, in-person) - with Gilles Retsin (CTPO/Co-founder) OR Mollie Claypool (CEO/Co-founder)
• Offer

This is a London role, 5 days a week in our E17 office. You'll need the right to work in the UK. We can sponsor visas if you're a standout candidate. If this is a fit, tell us, we'd rather hear from you than not.

We're proud that 50% of our technical team and 50% of our leadership are women. We're building a team as diverse as the communities we serve. If you see a part of this role that excites you, even if you don't meet 100% of the criteria, we encourage you to apply. Let's make housing better, together.

We are committed to creating an equitable, inclusive and diverse workplace. We intend to run an equal, fair and inclusive hiring process. If you feel there is any area we could improve, please let us know at info@auar.io.