Senior Simulation Engineer

About the role

At Toyota Research Institute (TRI), we’re on a mission to improve the quality of human life by developing new tools and capabilities to amplify the human experience. The Automated Driving Advanced Development division at TRI focuses on enabling innovation and transformation at Toyota by building a bridge between TRI research and Toyota products, services, and needs through partnership, collaboration, and shared commitment.

This role is part of a cross-organizational project between TRI and Woven by Toyota to conduct research and develop a fully end-to-end learned driving stack. As a Senior Simulation Engineer, you will lead the development of sensor and system-level simulation workflows that support both closed-loop validation and synthetic data generation for training. You will focus on functional validation of learned behaviors, scalable synthetic data generation, and seamless integration of state-of-the-art simulation technologies to support training and evaluation workflows. You will also drive cross-functional alignment between autonomy, platform, ML infrastructure, and integration teams.

Responsibilities

• Build a visually realistic simulator to test full end-to-end autonomy stack behavior, from simulating sensors to motion planning, across a range of scenario conditions
• Prototype and integrate with internal and third-party simulators to evaluate their ability to support learned system testing
• Curate scenarios and system introspection
• Build data logging frameworks used during large-scale virtual tests
• Collaborate closely with autonomy, ML, and integration teams to define simulation entry points, runtime configs, and closed-loop evaluation metrics
• Build diagnostic tooling and analysis pipelines to understand and improve real system behavior in simulation
• Lead cross-functional efforts to close the gap between simulation and on-vehicle deployment, increasing the reliability of sim-based validation
• Provide technical mentorship and foster a collaborative, high-trust engineering culture across organizational boundaries
• Demonstrate excellent design practices; generate technical documentation; lead technical presentations; align with stakeholders before, during, and after implementation

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s or Master’s in Computer Science, Robotics, or a related field
• 10+ years of experience in robotics, autonomous systems, or simulation
• Experience with 3D reconstruction (e.g., Gaussian Splatting, Neural Radiance Fields, etc.)
• Experience with 3D generation
• Experience with Unreal Engine
• Strong programming skills in Python and C++, especially for robotics or systems development
• Experience with simulation platforms (e.g., CARLA, Applied Intuition, Nvidia DriveSim, etc.) and their integration into autonomous system workflows
• Knowledge of sensor simulation principles and how perception systems interact with synthetic data
• Understanding of end-to-end autonomy pipelines, from raw sensor input to trajectory outputs
• Demonstrated ability to design for both users (e.g., autonomy developers) and simulation infrastructure stakeholders
• Passion for using simulation to drive real-world progress and system understanding

Bonus Qualifications

• Hands-on experience validating machine learning-based autonomy stacks in closed-loop simulation
• Knowledge of scenario generation, rare event simulation, or counterfactual testing
• Knowledge of one or more cloud compute platforms, such as AWS
• Experience with multi-agent simulation or high-fidelity 3D environments
• Prior experience in fast-paced R&D environments bridging research and production

Please include links to any relevant open-source contributions or technical project write-ups with your application.

Pay

The pay range for this position at commencement of employment is expected to be between $180,000 and $258,750/year for California-based roles. Base pay offered will depend on multiple individualized factors, including a candidate's experience, skills, job-related knowledge, and market location.

Benefits

• Medical, dental, and vision insurance
• 401(k) eligibility
• Paid time off benefits (including vacation, sick time, and parental leave)
• Annual cash bonus structure