Sr. Software Development Engineer, Amazon Robotics R&D

About the role

We are looking for a Software Development Engineer with deep expertise in 3D data, geometry processing, physics literacy, and asset pipelines to join the Robotics Simulation team at Amazon Robotics. This role focuses on building scalable tooling and workflows that produce simulation-ready 3D content with high visual and physics fidelity.

The day-to-day work is grounded in traditional 3D engineering: CAD conversion, geometry optimization, USD authoring, format interop, and pipeline hardening (70-80% of the role). The remaining 20-30% involves integrating emerging techniques (Gaussian Splatting, neural reconstruction, generative 3D) into production workflows as the field matures. At this level, the role includes ownership of the team's 3D pipeline architecture, driving cross-team technical standards, mentoring junior engineers, and influencing broader simulation asset strategy across multiple robotics programs.

Responsibilities

• Design and harden automated pipelines that convert CAD assemblies into simulation-ready USD assets with correct articulation, collision geometry, material properties, and physics parameters.
• Implement geometry processing tools (mesh optimization, convex decomposition, feature culling, LOD generation) balancing fidelity with simulation performance.
• Integrate emerging 3D techniques (Gaussian Splatting, neural reconstruction, generative 3D, LLM-orchestrated scene building) into production workflows as they mature.
• Define and enforce 3D asset standards and build validation tooling that programmatically checks assets against quality gates.
• Collaborate closely with Applied Scientists to ensure assets meet downstream training pipeline requirements, iterating on collision geometry and domain randomization parameters based on policy performance feedback.
• Own the architectural direction of the team's 3D pipeline ecosystem, driving the roadmap and long-term technology choices.
• Mentor junior SDEs and Technical Artists on geometry processing, USD best practices, and pipeline engineering.
• Author design documents and lead technical reviews; drive cross-team alignment on asset standards with partner organizations.

About the team

The Robotics Simulation team is a ~30-person multidisciplinary organization of SDEs, Applied Scientists, and Technical Artists at Amazon Robotics. We build the simulation infrastructure that powers Physical AI development, from photorealistic synthetic data to GPU-accelerated training environments. Our tools enable robots to be designed, trained, and validated entirely in simulation before physical hardware exists, compressing development timelines and de-risking hardware programs across Amazon Robotics.

This role is critical to making that possible: without simulation-ready 3D content, nothing downstream (policy training, synthetic data, sim-to-real transfer) can function. The role reports into the Robotics Simulation organization and works directly alongside Applied Scientists building robot learning pipelines. Your assets and tools are the foundation their training runs depend on, creating a tight feedback loop between 3D engineering and science.

Requirements

• 5+ years of programming with at least one software programming language.
• 5+ years of non-internship professional software development experience.
• 5+ years of leading design or architecture (design patterns, reliability, and scaling) of new and existing systems.
• Experience as a mentor, tech lead, or leading an engineering team.
• Master's degree in computer science, engineering, mathematics, or equivalent, or Master's degree in Electrical or Mechanical Engineering.
• 5+ years of professional software development experience focused on 3D data, geometry, or graphics pipelines.
• Strong proficiency in Python with experience in geometry/mesh processing libraries (Trimesh, Open3D, PyMeshLab, or similar).
• Working knowledge of Universal Scene Description (USD): composition, schemas, layering, and programmatic authoring.
• Understanding of 3D geometry fundamentals: mesh topology, convex decomposition, mesh simplification, and format interop (STEP, URDF, glTF, FBX).
• Track record of owning production 3D pipelines end-to-end and mentoring engineers or setting technical direction.

Preferred Qualifications

• PhD in Computer Graphics, Computational Geometry, Computer Vision, or a related field.
• Experience with neural 3D reconstruction (Gaussian Splatting, NeRFs) and converting outputs into simulation-ready meshes and materials.
• Experience with generative 3D content creation (text-to-3D, image-to-3D, procedural generation, or LLM-orchestrated scene building).
• Hands-on experience with CAD-to-simulation workflows (SolidWorks to USD/URDF, articulation extraction, joint authoring).
• Experience with NVIDIA Omniverse and systems-level languages (Rust, C++) for performance-critical geometry operations.
• Experience with cloud-based 3D processing (AWS Batch, containerized headless pipelines, GPU-accelerated geometry workflows).
• Experience with physics engines such as PhysX, Newton, and simulators such as Isaac Sim, MuJoCo.

Benefits

• Medical, Dental, and Vision Coverage.
• Maternity and Parental Leave Options.
• Paid Time Off (PTO).
• 401(k) Plan.

Pay

USA, MA, Boston - $168,100.00 - $227,400.00 USD annually

USA, MA, Westboro - $168,100.00 - $227,400.00 USD annually

USA, WA, Bellevue - $168,100.00 - $227,400.00 USD annually