Hardware Simulation Manager

Apptronik•Austin, TX

2d•Onsite

About The Position

Apptronik is seeking an Engineering Manager – Hardware Simulation to build and lead its centralized Simulation Center of Excellence from the ground up. This role involves defining how Apptronik uses predictive physics to accelerate the development of the Apollo humanoid robot, shifting the engineering culture from "build and test" to "simulate, predict, and validate." The manager will hire, mentor, and lead a multi-disciplinary team of simulation experts in structural, thermal, and robotics/kinematic domains, with plans to expand into electronic simulation. The goal is to ensure mathematical optimization of materials, thermal pathways, and dynamic movements before physical prototyping.

Requirements

10+ years of engineering experience in complex electromechanical product development
At least 3–5+ years of direct people management experience leading simulation or analysis teams
Deep, hands-on subject matter expertise in at least one primary domain (Structural FEA, Thermal/CFD, or Multi-Body Dynamics) with a strong conversational understanding of the others
Proven track record in Robotics, Aerospace, Automotive, or advanced Defense hardware, where minimizing mass while maximizing durability and thermal dissipation is critical
Extensive historical experience with industry-standard solvers (Ansys, Abaqus, LS-DYNA, Nastran, Flotherm, etc.) and an understanding of their respective strengths and weaknesses
Demonstrated ability to build a department from the ground up, implement new enterprise toolchains, and successfully change organizational behavior to adopt simulation-driven design
BS, MS, or PhD in Mechanical Engineering, Aerospace Engineering, Robotics, or a relevant technical discipline

Responsibilities

Build from Scratch: Define the headcount roadmap, draft specialized job descriptions, and actively recruit top-tier talent across multiple simulation disciplines.
Mentorship & Development: Cultivate a high-performance culture. Provide technical mentorship, establish clear career paths, and guide engineers through complex, multi-physics problem-solving.
Resource Management: Triage simulation requests from across the hardware organization. Prioritize workloads to ensure the simulation team acts as a strategic accelerator, not a bottleneck.
Toolchain Ownership: Evaluate, select, and manage the enterprise software suite (e.g., Ansys, Abaqus, Altair, Star-CCM+, Adams). Negotiate licenses and define the compute infrastructure (on-prem clusters or cloud HPC) required to run massive, system-level models.
Standardization: Establish company-wide Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) for meshing, boundary conditions, solver settings, and material libraries to ensure consistency and accuracy across all analyses.
Test Correlation: Partner heavily with the Hardware Integration & Test teams to ensure every simulation model is rigorously correlated with real-world physical data (strain gauges, thermal imaging, modal testing).
Structural Dynamics: Oversee the analysis of high-energy impacts (falls), high-cycle fatigue, and mass optimization (topology/generative design) for the robot's chassis and limbs.
Thermal-Fluid Systems: Guide the CFD and transient thermal modeling of dense, high-power compute clusters and high-torque actuators packed into tight humanoid envelopes.
Robotics Simulation: Lead the multi-body dynamics and kinematic simulations to validate joint loads, motor sizing, and dynamic stability during complex humanoid maneuvers.
Electronic Simulation (Roadmap): Develop the strategy and eventual hiring plan to bring electronic simulation in-house, focusing on Signal Integrity (SI), Power Integrity (PI), and EMI/EMC compliance for high-speed robotic nervous systems.