Robotics Simulation Engineer

Persona AI, Inc.; Houston (TX); On-site; USD 85,000 - 120,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Competitive compensation

Flexible work environment

Equity opportunities

Access to advanced prototyping tools

Job summary

A robotics technology company is seeking a Simulation Engineer to develop the simulation infrastructure for humanoid robots in Houston, Texas. This role involves building digital twin environments, managing simulation assets, and integrating autonomy subsystems. Applicants should have a relevant degree and over 3 years of experience in robotics simulation, particularly with NVIDIA Isaac Sim and Python programming. The company promotes a diverse workplace and offers competitive benefits.

Qualifications

• 3+ years of professional experience in robotics simulation.
• Strong hands-on experience with NVIDIA Isaac Sim and/or NVIDIA Omniverse.
• Proficiency in Python and experience with simulation tooling.

Responsibilities

• Build and maintain simulation environments in NVIDIA Isaac Sim.
• Develop and manage OpenUSD sim assets for humanoid robotics.
• Integrate autonomy subsystems with simulation environments.

Skills

Robotics simulation

Python

NVIDIA Isaac Sim

Physics engines (PhysX, MuJoCo, etc.)

Containerization (Docker)

CI/CD pipelines

Education

BS, MS, or PhD in Robotics, Computer Science, Mechanical Engineering, or a related field

Tools

NVIDIA Omniverse

OpenUSD

Job description

Persona AI is developing and commercializing rugged, multi‑purpose humanoid robots that perform real work. Persona’s founding team has a decades‑long history in humanoid robotics, bionics, and product development delivering robust hardware that has touched the stars, worked miles below the surface of the ocean, and even roamed Disney Parks. Our mission is focused squarely on shipping beautiful, reliable products at massive scale, while building a customer‑focused team to achieve these aims.

We’re looking for a Simulation Engineer to own and expand our NVIDIA Isaac Sim and Omniverse simulation infrastructure. You’ll build the digital twin environments, sim assets, and CI/CD pipelines that our autonomy team relies on daily. You will help achieve the vision in which every robot behavior we develop is prototyped, tested, and validated in simulation before it runs on hardware.

As one of the first dedicated simulation engineers at Persona, you will have an incredible opportunity to shape the simulation infrastructure that underpins our entire autonomy stack. You will report to the Behavior Coordination Lead and work closely with machine learning, locomotion, manipulation, perception, and devops teams.

Your Role:

• Build, maintain, and extend simulation environments in NVIDIA Isaac Sim and Omniverse for humanoid robot development.
• Develop and manage OpenUSD sim assets: robot models, tools, workpieces, customer facility environments (shipyards, steel fabrication plants, industrial sites).
• Create and maintain physics‑accurate digital twins of customer facilities (shipyards and industrial manufacturing) for behavior validation and deployment planning.
• Integrate all autonomy subsystems (locomotion, manipulation, perception, hands, navigation, welding) to run against Isaac Sim.
• Design and implement behavior‑level CI/CD pipelines that automatically validate robot behaviors in simulation.
• Prototype and mock‑test robot behaviors (welding, navigation, manipulation) in simulation before hardware integration.
• Develop synthetic data generation pipelines for training perception, manipulation, and navigation models.

We’re Looking For:

• BS, MS, or PhD in Robotics, Computer Science, Mechanical Engineering, or a related field.
• 3+ years of professional experience in robotics simulation, digital twin development, or physics‑based simulation environments.
• Strong hands‑on experience with NVIDIA Isaac Sim and/or NVIDIA Omniverse.
• Working knowledge of OpenUSD (Universal Scene Description): authoring, composition, referencing, flattening, and debugging USD stage hierarchies.
• Proficiency in Python; comfortable writing simulation tooling, test harnesses, and automation scripts.
• Experience with at least one physics engine: PhysX, MuJoCo, Bullet, or Drake.
• Solid understanding of robot kinematics, dynamics, and articulated body simulation.
• Experience developing or maintaining CI/CD pipelines for simulation or robotics software.
• Familiarity with containerization (Docker) and DevOps practices for simulation infrastructure.
• Ability to create and manage 3D simulation assets (meshes, materials, collision geometry, articulation definitions).

Preferred or Bonus Qualifications:

• Experience with NVIDIA Isaac Lab for reinforcement learning environment setup and training.
• Familiarity with NVIDIA Cosmos for synthetic data generation and scene variability.
• Experience with ROS/ROS 2 and Gazebo simulation.
• Experience with Unreal Engine or other real‑time rendering engines for robotics visualization.
• Background in manipulation simulation: contact modeling, grasp planning, dexterous multi‑fingered hand interaction, and force/torque estimation.
• Experience with motion capture data pipelines and motion retargeting to robot models.
• Exposure to behavior trees, task planning, or autonomy stack architecture.
• Knowledge of Omniverse extensions development and Kit SDK.

Why join Persona AI?

• You’ll shape technology that redefining the possibilities of robotics and human interaction.
• Work alongside passionate teammates who value diversity, creativity, and continuous learning.
• Enjoy full access to advanced prototyping tools, labs, and the freedom to experiment and innovate.
• We offer competitive compensation, excellent benefits, flexible work environment, and equity opportunities.

Persona AI embraces diversity and equal opportunity in a serious way. We are committed to building a team that represents a variety of backgrounds, perspectives, and skills. We believe the more inclusive we are, the better our work will be.