Staff Simulation Engineer - Dexterity

JOB SUMMARY 

We are seeking a Staff Simulation Engineer to be the sole owner of dexterous hand simulation at Apptronik.

This is a high-autonomy, high-impact individual contributor role. You will define how hands are represented in simulation — from contact geometry and physics fidelity all the way through sim-to-real validation — and you will be the authoritative technical voice across Mechanical Design, Controls, and Hardware whenever simulation of the hand is in scope. There is no team beneath you, but your work directly unblocks multiple teams.

Core mandate: make simulation a reliable predictor of physical hand behavior, and own that standard end-to-end.

ESSENTIAL DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES or KEY ACCOUNTABILITIES

Contact Dynamics & Physics Fidelity: Own the accuracy of contact simulation for high-DOF robotic hands. Model and tune contact parameters — stiffness, damping, friction, restitution — against real hardware measurements. Develop and maintain hand-specific collision geometry (primitive decomposition, mesh optimization) to ensure simulation contact behavior matches physical interaction.

Sim-to-Real Validation: Design and execute systematic sim-to-real validation workflows. Run side-by-side comparisons of grasping stability, fingertip contact forces, and joint behavior between simulation and hardware. Drive iterative parameter calibration using real sensor data — encoders, F/T sensors, tactile arrays — until simulation predictions are quantifiably reliable

Sensor & Actuator Modeling: Build accurate models of the hand's sensing and actuation systems within simulation — including tactile sensor response, actuator dynamics (compliance, backlash), and encoder noise characteristics.

Evaluation Scene Construction: Design and implement evaluation environments and dexterity benchmarks in Isaac Lab / Isaac Sim. Own the physical property modeling — contact materials, object mass/inertia, surface textures — required for high-fidelity task simulation.

Asset Pipeline: Contribute to CAD-to-USD conversion workflows as needed — collision mesh generation, joint limit extraction, kinematic parameter import. This is infrastructure support, not a primary focus.

SKILLS AND REQUIREMENTS

Must-Have

• 4+ years of hands-on robotic simulation experience (Senior); 7+ years (Staff)
• Experience with robotic hands or high-DOF manipulators
• Demonstrated experience with contact-rich simulation — not just kinematics and trajectory playback
• Experience with physics parameter identification (sysid) or domain randomization pipelines
• Proven ability to operate as a domain owner: setting technical direction, making independent architectural decisions, and driving cross-functional alignment through expertise
• Strong Python skills; C++ a plus
• Solid fundamentals: rigid body dynamics, contact mechanics, collision geometry, spatial math
• Hardware-grounded: experience running sim-to-real comparisons with real sensor data

Nice-to-Have

• Deep working knowledge of Isaac Sim, MuJoCo, or equivalent modern robotics simulator
• Familiarity with tactile sensing or F/T sensor integration in simulation
• USD proficiency: composition arcs, layers, stages
• Background in teleoperation or motion retargeting

EDUCATION and/or EXPERIENCE 

• MS or PhD in Robotics, Computer Science, Mechanical Engineering, or related fields.

PHYSICAL REQUIREMENTS 

• Prolonged periods of sitting at a desk and working on a computer
• Must be able to lift 15 pounds at times
• Vision to read printed materials and a computer screen
• Hearing and speech to communicate