Senior Simulation Engineer

At Blue Origin, we envision millions of people living and working in space for the benefit of Earth. We’re working to develop reusable, safe, and low-cost space vehicles and systems within a culture of safety, collaboration, and inclusion. Join our team of problem solvers as we add new chapters to the history of spaceflight!

This role is part of Advanced Concepts and Enterprise Engineering (ACE), supporting Blue Origin’s mission of millions of people living and working in space for the benefit of Earth. The team fosters innovation and drives engineering workflows of the future, shared solutions and standards, simplicity and lower costs, and manufacturable design.

• Stand up and iterate dynamic models to evaluate system concepts, margins, and operational envelopes for locomotion and manipulation systems
• Build scenario-based simulation studies — wheeled/legged mobility, robotic manipulation — using physics engines (NVIDIA Isaac Sim, Mu Jo Co , Gazebo, Drake, or equivalent) to inform requirements and design decisions
• Develop contact and terra mechanics approaches at appropriate fidelity levels; quantify key sensitivities and uncertainties
• Provide simulation data products (control margins, sensitivity sweeps, operational envelopes) to support control architecture and actuator trades
• Produce model maturation plans, test-to-model correlation plans, and phased verification strategies (MIL → SIL → HIL)
• Generate synthetic data and simulation-based datasets to support ML, reinforcement learning, and sim-to-real transfer

• Mature simulation models into verification-grade assets with configuration management, parameter governance, and automated regression
• Correlate models to hardware test data; drive system identification, parameter updates, and model credibility arguments
• Implement plant models, actuator dynamics, sensor models, and environment interactions within simulation frameworks for closed-loop analysis
• Define verification artifacts (test cases, scenario coverage, acceptance criteria, model credibility evidence) for mobility and manipulation domains
• Support anomaly resolution from lab through integrated testing via simulation replay and analysis
• Mentor junior engineers; establish best practices for simulation software quality

• 8+ years developing physics-based simulation and dynamic models for high-reliability or high-performance robotic systems (aerospace/space, autonomous vehicles, legged robots, industrial/warehouse automation, or similarly demanding domains)
• Strong dynamics and multibody modeling fundamentals: rigid/flexible body formulations, contact mechanics, actuator/sensor abstraction, numerical methods
• Proficiency with at least one major robotics/physics simulation platform (NVIDIA Isaac Sim/Isaac Lab, Mu Jo Co , Gazebo/gz-sim, Drake, Webots, PyBullet, or equivalent)
• Demonstrated ability to use simulation to drive decisions across the lifecycle: trade studies → design → verification
• Experience with simulation framework development (Python, C/C++) plus disciplined configuration management, automated testing, and verification practices
• Familiarity with control system concepts sufficient to implement and evaluate closed-loop simulations (stability, estimation, tuning)

• B.S. (M.S./Ph.D. preferred) in Aerospace, Mechanical, Electrical, Robotics, Computer Science, Computational Science, or related field
• Hands‑on experience with NVIDIA Isaac Sim / Isaac Lab for robotics scenario simulation (locomotion, manipulation, repeatable environments, terrain/contact interaction, domain randomization, logging/analysis)
• Experience with Mu Jo Co , Drake, or Gazebo…