Physics Applications - Software Engineer

Vinci • Palo Alto, CA

5d

About The Position

Vinci is building operator intelligence infrastructure for hardware programs, using a unified foundation model trained on structured physics data and deployed for production workloads. The company is expanding its simulation capabilities to cover new physics and geometries, as well as transient solutions that model interactions, deformation, and dynamics.

The Physics Applications Software Engineer will define and implement high-quality, reusable software libraries for Vinci’s core simulation engine. The role focuses on delivering customer value while maintaining the technical integrity of the codebase, including designing clean interfaces that accurately represent the physics being modeled. The engineer will establish and uphold standards for code quality, testability, architecture, and maintainability, and help turn research prototypes into hardened, customer-facing features.

The role involves owning critical system components, solving architectural challenges, mentoring scientists and engineers, and collaborating with physicists, AI researchers, software engineers, and computational geometry experts through the full development lifecycle, from ideation to deployment. The position also contributes to expanding the unified model architecture into transient simulation and supporting scalable production deployments.

Requirements

• At least 8 years of experience in high-quality software development, with significant experience designing and building production-grade systems.
• Experience with scientific computing or physics simulators such as FEM, FEA, Molecular Dynamics, or FDTD, or with large-scale machine learning systems.
• Demonstrated ability to lead technical initiatives focused on code health, modularity, and system correctness.
• Expertise in building robust, tested, maintainable software libraries and APIs.
• Strong proficiency in modern software development practices, including system design, agentic coding, testing frameworks, and continuous integration/delivery.
• Contribution to a production data processing system.
• Ability to independently solve complex architectural problems and take ownership of core infrastructure evolution.

Nice To Haves

• STEM MSc or PhD.
• Experience building and maintaining core machine learning, data infrastructure, or numerical computing software, such as PyTorch, NumPy, CUDA, or distributed systems.
• Experience taking an early-stage prototype into a production environment.
• Experience at a startup or national lab.
• Experience using simulation for design or data generation.

Responsibilities

• Define and implement high-quality, reusable software libraries for the core simulation engine.
• Drive code quality, testability, and architectural standards across the team.
• Design simple, accessible interfaces that correctly reflect the physics being modeled.
• Ensure the production system scales gracefully and remains maintainable.
• Take ownership of critical system components and the evolution of core model infrastructure.
• Transform research prototypes into hardened, customer-facing features.
• Collaborate with physicists, AI researchers, software engineers, and computational geometry experts throughout the development lifecycle.
• Enforce software engineering best practices from ideation through deployment.
• Drive continuous integration, comprehensive regression testing, and validation discipline.
• Mentor scientists and engineers on best practices, performance optimization, and system design.

Benefits

• Opportunity for technical and professional growth.
• Opportunity to define a foundational abstraction layer early in the company’s trajectory.
• Empowerment to own and architect large pieces of the system.
• Greenfield opportunities to expand Vinci’s core capabilities.
• Opportunity to work with a small, friendly, accessible team.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Senior
• Education Level: No Education Listed