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Salary: USD 144,500 - 322,742 / annual
Saildrone is a maritime defense company and global leader in autonomous unmanned surface vehicles (USVs). The company operates combat-deployed systems supporting national security and force projection worldwide, with manufacturing and R&D headquarters in Alameda, CA, and deployment hubs in Europe and the Middle East.
As a Software Engineer, Simulation & Evaluation, you will build the infrastructure that enables Saildrone engineers to replay real-world data, simulate autonomous behavior, measure performance, and convert failures into repeatable tests. This role bridges simulation, replay, resimulation, scenario generation, evaluation, and automated regression testing.
Key responsibilities include:
- Build production-quality simulation, replay, resimulation, and evaluation infrastructure for autonomous systems
- Engage with simulation users to understand pain points in scenario definitions and maintenance, then 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
- Convert 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
Qualifications:
- 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
Nice to have:
- Experience with autonomous vehicles, robotics, aerospace, or other physical autonomous systems
- Python for analysis, automation, or test tooling
- Large-scale simulation or high-throughput data processing
- CI/CD and automated regression testing
- Vehicle or field-test data
