Founding Simulation Engineer (C++)

About the Position

Founding Simulation Engineer (C++)

Madrid, Spain

The company builds simulation and validation infrastructure for autonomous systems. We want robotics teams to connect the autonomy stacks they already run, exercise them against reproducible scenarios, and carry evidence from field failures back into simulation without rebuilding their systems around us.

Our near-term users may build warehouse and industrial robots or civilian drones. Their interfaces differ - ROS2 and machine telemetry on one side, PX4/MAVLink and control-system models on the other - but the product loop is the same:

external autonomy stack → simulation → evidence → field log → replay → diagnosis and tuning.

You will own that loop.

Responsibilities

• Design, implement and version the interfaces between the company and external autonomy stacks, including middleware graphs, flight controllers, control-system models and their data contracts.
• Build or extend the adapters, bridges and wrappers needed for closed-loop operation; this includes systems-level code, not only configuration.
• Diagnose failures across software, middleware, networking, timing and model boundaries, then isolate which side of the interface is responsible.
• Turn logs and telemetry from real or representative systems into reproducible replay, comparison and tuning workflows.
• Build automated integration tests, regression fixtures, compatibility records and a replayable failure corpus so each integration improves the product.
• Work with the core and evaluation-runtime owners to define clear interface contracts and readiness criteria.

Requirements

Required

• Substantial production experience with robotics, autonomy or another distributed real-time system.
• Ownership of a robotics runtime or middleware boundary such as ROS2/DDS, PX4/MAVLink, a proprietary autonomy stack or a comparable control-system interface.
• Ability to read, write and debug systems-level integration code in C++ on Linux.
• Demonstrated depth in at least one of these areas: PX4/MAVLink SITL, Simulink/MATLAB cosimulation, or production field-log replay and tuning.
• Clear written and verbal communication across software, controls and product boundaries.
• ROS2 experience is valuable, but this role also requires depth in at least one of the three areas above.

Strongly Preferred

• Production ROS2 depth in a system that shipped and ran.
• Depth in a second surface from the list above; experience spanning both ground robotics and civilian drones is particularly useful.
• Experience with software-in-the-loop or hardware-in-the-loop validation, distributed-system timing, networking or time synchronization.
• Python or shell experience for diagnostic tooling and test automation.
• Experience integrating a third-party simulation platform, autonomy stack or robotics API.
• Experience building compatibility matrices, diagnostic tooling or regression fixtures from repeated field failures.

We Offer

• Relocation support and visa sponsorship for joining the team in Madrid.
• Direct product ownership of the interoperability and field-evidence loop, with room to improve the underlying product rather than repeatedly work around it.
• Close collaboration with the core team responsible for deterministic simulation and evaluation runtime behaviour.
• Cross-domain impact: build one validation product that can support warehouse, industrial and civilian-drone systems through reusable interfaces and evidence.

About the Company

The company builds simulation and validation infrastructure for autonomous systems. We want robotics teams to connect the autonomy stacks they already run, exercise them against reproducible scenarios, and carry evidence from field failures back into simulation without rebuilding their systems around us.