Staff Simulation Platform Engineer

Team: Virtual Test Environment

Location: Boston

Commitment: Full Time

Workplace Type: hybrid

Salary:

The compensation range provided is a good-faith estimate based on a wide range of factors, inclusive of base salary only. The actual offer will be determined by a variety of factors including the candidate's qualifications, skills, experience, education, and training. Highly competitive equity grants are considered part of Merlin's total compensation package. Additionally, Merlin offers top-tier benefits for full-time employees.

About you:

We are seeking a Staff Simulation Platform Engineer to design and build the next-generation simulation infrastructure that supports aircraft modeling, autonomy development, and hardware-in-the-loop validation across multiple aircraft platforms.

This is a hands-on senior technical role focused on building scalable virtual environments, stabilizing integration infrastructure, and enabling scenario-based autonomy validation without linear growth in engineering effort per platform.

This position reports to the Virtual Test Environments Lead and will play a central role in evolving our simulation ecosystem into a robust, scalable internal platform.

 

Responsibilities:

1. Simulation Infrastructure Architecture & Implementation

Define and implement structured topology and configuration definitions across aircraft platforms

Improve stability of routing layers, hardware/software interfaces, and runtime integration components

Introduce versioning and compatibility discipline across simulation artifacts

Build validation tooling to prevent integration breakage from reaching lab benches

2. Autonomy-Focused Virtual Environment Development

Expand scenario-based simulation capabilities supporting autonomy development

Enable structured Monte Carlo and multi-scenario validation workflows

Develop infrastructure to simulate sensor inputs and autonomy behaviors in realistic operational contexts

Improve determinism and traceability of simulation runs

3. Toolchain Modernization & Automation

Implement CI/CD workflows for simulation artifacts

Improve reproducibility of simulation environments

Implement schema-driven validation mechanisms for interfaces

Build foundational platform components hands-on during early phases

4. Technical Leadership

Mentor and elevate engineers working on simulation tools and routing infrastructure

Establish extensibility and architectural standards within the simulation stack

Influence cross-functional stakeholders (Autonomy, Compute Platform, Systems, Lab Integration)

This is a senior technical contributor role with significant architectural impact but no direct people management responsibility.

Qualifications:

7+ years of experience building or scaling complex simulation or autonomy validation environments

Experience contributing to or architecting large-scale simulation frameworks (e.g., AFSIM, Unreal/Unity-based simulation environments, CARLA, custom autonomy simulation platforms, or equivalent)

Strong software architecture experience in multi-component, distributed systems

Experience defining interface contracts, configuration schemas, or API boundaries in complex systems

Experience integrating simulation environments with real-time or hardware-in-the-loop systems

Hands-on proficiency in Python and/or C++

Demonstrated ability to modernize or scale legacy engineering toolchains

Nice to Have:

Experience developing simulation or virtual validation environments for autonomy systems (automotive, aerospace, robotics)

Experience designing scenario-based validation systems

Familiarity with SIL/HIL integration

Experience implementing CI/CD in engineering-heavy environments

Background in safety-critical systems