Senior Software Engineer, Autonomy - Simulation

About Cyngn Based in Menlo Park, CA, Cyngn is a publicly traded autonomous vehicle company. We have a culture of collaboration, diversity, and continuous learning. Whether at a warehouse, factory, or industrial facility, our self-driving technology can be deployed in various commercial domains across various vehicle form factors. To build this emergent technology, we seek innovative, motivated, and experienced leaders to join our team and move this field forward. If you like to build and create with a team of trusted and passionate colleagues, then Cyngn is the place for you. Key reasons to join Cyngn:  
We are Small and Big. With under 100 employees, Cyngn is still a company that operates with the energy of a startup. On the other hand, we are publicly traded. Combined, our employees not only work in close-knit teams with close mentorship from company leaders, but they also get access to the liquidity of our publicly traded equity. This gives our small team the opportunity to make a big impact in industries that other people aren’t touching—without taking on the risks associated with untested organizations. 
We Build Today and Deploy Tomorrow. Our employees aren’t just researchers but are creating reality. In other words, the autonomous vehicles we’re building are designed to go to real clients right away. We are driven by our passion for innovation, our ability to see the entire product, and the real impact of our work in the real world. At Cyngn, the distance between the theoretical and the actual is razor-thin. 
We aren’t robots. We just build them. Read our Glassdoor reviews, and you’ll find that one of the best things about working here is the people. We are an inclusive, diverse team of top talent with exceptional synergy. We thrive on open collaboration and a trusting and creative work environment that is fueled by our passion for the industry. At Cyngn, everyone’s voice is valued, and each of our unique perspectives is celebrated. It’s the people that allow our company to continue to grow bigger and better every day
About this role: As a Senior Simulation Software Engineer in our autonomy software organization, you will play a critical role in accelerating the development of safe and reliable autonomous industrial vehicles and material handling systems. You’ll be responsible for advancing the fidelity, scalability, and functionality of our simulation platforms, enabling efficient testing and validation across the autonomy stack. Collaborating closely with engineers from perception, behavior, and QA teams, you will help develop and integrate high-fidelity models of vehicles, sensors, and deployment environments, as well as build scenario generation frameworks and simulation-based test automation tools. The ideal candidate brings deep expertise in robotics simulation and a passion for leveraging virtual environments to improve real-world autonomy performance.

Responsibilities

• Extend and maintain Cyngn’s existing simulation platforms and tooling.
• Lead the design and implementation of next-generation simulation technologies.
• Develop, integrate, and validate high-fidelity models that capture vehicle dynamics, sensor physics, and complex environments.
• Build tools and pipelines that enable large-scale, automated testing and performance evaluation of autonomy software.
• Support scalability efforts to simulate multi-vehicle/agent interactions in dynamic real-time scenarios. 
• Contribute to technical planning, code reviews, and milestone execution in a fast-paced, product-driven startup environment.

Qualifications

• M.S. with a focus in Robotics, Computer Science, a related technical field, and/or equivalent practical background.
• 3+ years as an autonomous vehicle, robotics, or simulation software engineer with demonstrated experience in the development of simulation software.
• 3+ years writing C++ and Python software in production environments (architecture, design, testing, performance optimization, etc.).
• Proficiency using ROS in production robotics applications with exposure to ROS2 and/or other publish/subscribe middleware architectures.
• Strong written & verbal communication skills with a proven track record of delivering production quality software in a collaborative, cross-functional team setting.
• Comfortable with modern software development tools and workflows, including version control (Git) and project management platforms (e.g. Jira)

Bonus Qualifications

• Familiarity with NVIDIA Omniverse/IsaacSim for simulating robotic systems, applications, and complex environments.
• Experience leveraging simulation to create synthetic datasets for ML-based perception and behavior models.
• Understanding of how simulation is used to train high-fidelity sensor models that reflect real-world characteristics such as noise, latency, and environmental effects.
• Strong understanding of theoretical concepts in classical and/or data-driven AI methods for perception and behavior in autonomous systems.
• Exposure to industrial material handling autonomous vehicles including forklifts and tuggers with cart-trains under dynamic loading conditions.
• Background using MapleSim for developing Functional Mock-up Units (FMUs) for model exchange and co-simulation

Benefits & Perks

• Health benefits (Medical, Dental, Vision, HSA and FSA (Health & Dependent Daycare), Employee Assistance Program, 1:1 Health Concierge)
• Life, Short-term and long-term disability insurance (Cyngn funds 100% of premiums)
• Company 401(k)
• Commuter Benefits
• Flexible vacation policy
• Stock options for all full-time employees
• Sabbatical leave opportunity after 5 years with the company
• Paid Parental Leave
• Daily lunches for in-office employees and fully-stocked kitchen with snacks and beverages