Simulation Engineer, Vehicle Physics (UGV)

NestAI; Helsinki; On-site; EUR 70,000 - 110,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Occupational healthcare

Epassi Flex benefit

Lunch benefit

Regular team lunches

Mac or PC of choice

Holiday allowance

Phone benefit

Job summary

NestAI in Helsinki is seeking a Simulation Engineer to build and tune realistic vehicle physics for unmanned ground vehicles within our simulation platform. You will aim for physics fidelity that reflects real-world behavior and work with cross‑functional teams to validate results against physical tests.

Your work includes terrain interaction, vehicle integration, and bringing new platforms into the shared simulator, with a focus on scalable, production‑ready systems.

Qualifications

• Deep experience with vehicle physics in a modern real-time engine.
• Hands-on modelling of tracked and/or wheeled vehicle dynamics.
• Experience integrating simulated vehicle controls with real hardware or controller setups.
• Track record of shipping real, live products, not only prototypes or client projects.
• Strong communication skills; you'll work closely with other teams and with people running physical vehicle tests.
• A mindset built for scale: you've worked in larger engineering teams or organisations, and you're ready for a team that will keep growing.
• Experience deploying real-time or simulation workloads to the cloud is a plus

Responsibilities

• Build and tune realistic vehicle physics for unmanned ground vehicles to mirror real behavior.
• Model interactions with diverse terrains to achieve physical accuracy.
• Integrate new vehicles and controllers into the simulation as they become available.
• Bring UGVs into the shared simulation environment with other unmanned platforms.
• Collaborate with teams running physical vehicle tests to validate and refine the simulator.
• Contribute to the broader simulation platform to meet visual and physics fidelity needs.

Skills

Vehicle physics

Unreal Engine 5

Vehicle dynamics modelling

Sim-to-real integration

Shipping real products

Team communication

Scale mindset

Cloud deployment

Tools

Unreal Engine 5

Job description

Company

NestAI is a European AI lab for defence delivering the adaptive operating system for modern battlefield operations. We develop adaptive intelligence for unmanned and command systems: AI that continuously learns from operational data and adapts to changing conditions.

NestOS is our open, modular and interoperable platform that enables this at scale and keeps capability evolution under sovereign European control. Founded in 2025 by Peter Sarlin, whose previous company Silo AI became Europe's largest AI acquisition, NestAI brings together over 200 engineers and scientists and partners with leading European defence forces and industry.

Role Description

You'll join NestAI's Simulation Chapter, the team building the simulation platform that lets us test and validate autonomy software long before it touches real hardware. This role is focused on unmanned ground vehicles: getting simulated vehicle physics to closely match how the real vehicle behaves.

This is for someone who enjoys the physics-heavy end of simulation, closer to a racing sim or a tank simulator than to game art, and who wants their work checked against the real thing.

Day-to-Day Responsibilities:

• Build and tune realistic vehicle physics for unmanned ground vehicles, so behaviour in simulation reliably reflects the real vehicle.

• Work on how vehicles interact with different types of terrain, aiming for physical accuracy rather than just visual realism.

• Integrate new vehicles and controllers into the simulation as they become available.

• Bring UGVs into the same shared simulation environment as our other unmanned platforms.

• Partner with the team running physical vehicle tests, using their measurements to validate and refine the simulation.

• Contribute to the wider simulation platform, helping it meet both visual and physics fidelity requirements.

Qualifications:

• Deep experience with vehicle physics in a modern real-time engine (e.g., Unreal Engine 5).

• Hands-on experience modelling tracked and/or wheeled vehicle dynamics, for example from racing sims or vehicle simulators.

• Experience integrating simulated vehicle controls with real hardware or controller setups.

• A track record of shipping real, live products, not only prototypes or client projects, with the mindset of someone who owns long-term outcomes.

• Strong communication skills. You'll work closely with other teams and with the people running physical vehicle tests.

• A mindset built for scale: you've worked in larger engineering teams or organisations, and you're ready for a team that will keep growing.

• Experience deploying real-time or simulation workloads to the cloud is a plus

Why join NestAI

At NestAI, you'll build meaningful, real-world technology as part of a world-class team of engineers, scientists, and experienced professionals. You'll work on systems where reliability genuinely matters, contribute to Europe's security and resilience, and solve problems that demand depth, trust, and craftsmanship.

If you want to build with purpose - and with leading experts in the field - you've come to the right place.

What we offer

We offer a growing set of practical benefits to support your work and wellbeing, day to day:

• Occupational healthcare (currently provided by Mehiläinen)

• Epassi Flex benefit (sports, culture, commuting, wellbeing)

• Lunch benefit (25% tax-free coverage)

• Regular team lunches and all-hands events

• Your choice of Mac or PC

• Holiday allowance (50% of holiday salary)

• Phone benefit according to company policy (subscription and device)

• We are continuously developing and expanding our benefits as we grow.

Practicalities

Employment is subject to applicable security screening (including SUPO, where required).

NestAI is an equal opportunity employer. We consider all applicants based on their skills, experience, and potential.