Simulation Engine Engineer (up to £110k)

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The role

Most robotics simulation still relies on engines built for video games or legacy CPU physics packages never designed for massive parallelisation. This Cambridge-based startup, backed by leading VCs with a long runway and founded by veteran architects who spent over a decade building physics engines at a major semiconductor giant, is rewriting the simulation and learning stack for modern robotics from the ground up. They are a lean, deeply technical team of eleven working alongside live humanoid and quadruped hardware.

You will lead the hands-on development of the core simulation and engine infrastructure, coding alongside founders who still commit engine code daily. This is a senior IC anchor seat, not an ivory‑tower management track: the on‑site engineering team is early‑career and needs a senior systems engineer in the room to review, unblock, and mentor. If you want layers of middle management and abstracted ticket‑shuffling, this is not it; if you want to write modern C++ close to the hardware and watch your simulation train physical robots in the lab, it is.

The work

• Architect and implement the core GPU-accelerated simulation engine powering massive-scale robot learning pipelines.
• Write, profile, and tune performance-critical modern C++ where throughput and execution speed directly dictate training viability.
• Bridge the engine to real-world edge hardware, validating simulation fidelity against in-house humanoid and quadruped robots.
• Act as the senior technical anchor on site—setting engineering standards, unblocking complex bugs, and mentoring early-career engineers through pairing and rigorous code reviews.

What You Bring

• Deep expertise in modern C++ with a track record of shipping performance-critical, low‑level systems where speed and determinism are the product.
• Direct experience building or working deep inside physics engines, game engines, or comparably complex systems close to the silicon.
• Demonstrated seniority through mentoring earlier-career engineers, levelling up the room via pairing, rigorous code reviews, and clear technical guidance.
• Comfort debating technical trade-offs openly and iterating directly alongside highly technical, code‑writing founders.
• Based in or able to relocate to Cambridge, UK, to work fully on site with the lab and robotics hardware every day.