- Robot type
- Marine and Space
- Location
- AlamedaCaliforniaUSA
- Job type
- Software
- Posted
- Sep 21, 2026
- Salary
- $144,500–$322,742 a year
Full-time
Software Engineer, Simulation & Evaluation
Job description
Autonomous systems cannot be developed and validated through field testing alone. As a Software Engineer, Simulation & Evaluation, you will build the infrastructure that lets Saildrone engineers replay real-world data, simulate autonomous behavior, measure performance, and turn failures into repeatable tests.
You will work across simulation, replay, resimulation, scenario generation, evaluation, and automated regression.
Saildrone is a maritime defense company and the global leader in autonomous unmanned surface vehicles (USVs). With more ocean miles and real-world operational experience than any USV manufacturer or operator, Saildrone maintains active, combat-deployed systems supporting…
Job responsibilities
- Build production-quality simulation, replay, resimulation, and evaluation infrastructure for autonomous systems.
- Discuss pain points with simulation users to understand what is difficult to express in the scenario definitions, what’s difficult to maintain and propose and implement solutions.
- Connect recorded vehicle data, simulated environments, and production autonomy software into repeatable test workflows.
- Develop open-loop and closed-loop testing for autonomous behavior.
- Build quantitative metrics, evaluation pipelines, and regression tests.
- Turn real-world failures and edge cases into repeatable scenarios and automated tests.
- Analyze logs, telemetry, simulation results, and test failures to identify root causes.
- Integrate simulation and evaluation into the software development lifecycle.
Job requirements
- Strong C++ software engineering skills and experience building production systems.
- Experience with simulation, emulation, replay, resimulation, hardware-in-the-loop, software-in-the-loop, or comparable robotics testing infrastructure.
- Strong systems fundamentals, including concurrency, performance, reliability, and Linux.
- Experience building quantitative evaluation or validation systems.
- Understanding of simulation fidelity and the limitations of simulated or replayed behavior.
- Experience building infrastructure used by other engineers.
- Strong communication skills to partner with stakeholders across teams