Simulation Lead Engineer

Gravisrobotics, a startup transforming heavy construction machines into autonomous robots, seeks a Simulation Lead Engineer in Zürich. The role involves leading the simulation platform, integrating hardware and software, and supporting ML training and testing for autonomous earthmoving machines.

Gravisrobotics is a startup developing intelligent, autonomous construction machines using learning-based automation and remote control. The Simulation Lead Engineer will shape the company’s simulation ecosystem, bridging hardware, software, and real-world deployment. This role is central to the company’s technical stack and is expected to evolve into a technical leadership position.

Responsibilities

• Lead the development and long-term strategy for Gravis’s simulation platform, including architecture, implementation, tooling, and infrastructure
• Create and maintain high-fidelity simulation environments for heavy construction machinery, incorporating terrain, sensors, hydraulics, and soil dynamics using GPU-accelerated tools
• Design and implement automated testing, regression pipelines, and CI integration for simulation workflows
• Build synthetic data generation and domain randomization systems to support machine learning policy training and perception model development
• Analyze and reduce discrepancies between simulation and real-world performance to close the sim-to-real gap
• Work with Autonomy, Perception, and Platform teams to translate their needs into simulation capabilities
• Manage and scale compute infrastructure for simulation workloads, including in-house and cloud-based systems
• Recruit and guide simulation engineers as part of technical leadership

Requirements

• Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Computer Science, Robotics, or a related field
• 5+ years of experience in robotics simulation or equivalent impactful results
• Practical experience with GPU-accelerated simulation software
• Strong software engineering skills in Python, with a focus on production-quality code
• Experience integrating simulation into CI pipelines and automated testing frameworks
• Excellent communication skills in English
• Experience hiring or leading engineers, or a clear willingness to take on such a role

Nice to have

• Experience with GPU-based simulation and large-scale cloud infrastructure (AWS, containerization, provisioning tools)
• Familiarity with CI/CD systems such as GitHub Actions or Jenkins
• Knowledge of reinforcement learning or imitation learning for robot policy training
• Understanding of techniques to close the sim-to-real gap
• Strong software engineering skills in modern C++
• Experience with ROS2