Senior Software Engineer, World Modeling & Simulation

Applied Intuition•Ann Arbor, MI

7d•Onsite

About The Position

We're seeking a Senior Software Engineer to architect the world representation layer at the heart of Applied Intuition's Acuity autonomy stack. If you've spent your career building the spatial worlds that games, simulations, or autonomous systems inhabit, defining how environments are structured, queried, and updated at high frequency this role was written for you. This is a senior, deeply technical position sitting at the intersection of computational geometry, real-time world modeling, and large-scale simulation. You'll own the foundational scene and mapping systems that downstream sensor fusion and path planning both depend on: defining 4D spatial abstractions, Entity Component Systems, and the high-performance data structures that make multi-agent reasoning across air, ground, and maritime domains possible. The ideal candidate has built world representations from the ground up, whether in a game engine, a robotics simulator, or an autonomous vehicle stack and knows what it takes to make those representations fast, accurate, and scalable under real operational constraints.

Requirements

7+ years of professional software engineering experience, with deep expertise in spatial systems, world modeling, or simulation environments
Expert-level C++ skills (C++20 or later), including template metaprogramming, move semantics, SIMD, and performance optimization at the systems level
Hands-on experience building world or scene representations — from a game engine, sim platform, or autonomous system — including managing dynamic object state, spatial indexing, and real-time updates
Strong background in computational geometry: coordinate transformations, spatial data structures (BVH, octrees, k-d trees), geometric algorithms, and collision/proximity systems
Deep intuition for low-latency, high-throughput software design in real-time environments
Strong proficiency in Python and shell scripting for tooling and automation
Experience with agentic coding tools (Cursor, Claude Code, GitHub Copilot) and AI-assisted development workflows
Must be willing to travel as projects requires; average travel varies, but can be up to once a month for up to 1 week (~20%)
Must be a U.S. Citizen
Must hold or be eligible to obtain and maintain a U.S. security clearance

Nice To Haves

Expertise with the Linux/Docker/C++ toolchains (including build systems like Nix and Bazel) and cross-compilation.
Experience with temporal reasoning systems and 4D scene representation (space + time)
Background in game development, simulation, or virtual environments
Knowledge of physics engines and collision detection systems
Understanding of autonomous systems or robotics software architectures

Responsibilities

Architect World & Scene Representation Systems: Design and implement core spatial data structures, including Entity Component System frameworks, spatial indexing, occupancy representations, and 4D object management for large-scale multi-agent environments.
Own Mapping & Geometry Pipelines: Build and optimize the computational geometry and world-state systems that sit between raw sensor data and the path planning stack — including coordinate frame management, spatial queries, and environment abstraction layers.
Drive Performance to the Metal: Write highly optimized C++ (C++20) with a focus on low-latency, cache-efficient, and memory-conscious design. You should be comfortable profiling hot paths, eliminating allocations, and squeezing real-time performance out of complex spatial systems.
Lead Technical Strategy & Integration: Drive architectural decisions and design clean APIs that enable cross-domain integration across air, ground, and maritime autonomy stacks.
Collaborate & Mentor: Act as a technical anchor across teams — engaging proactively with sensor, planning, and simulation engineers to ensure the scene layer meets the needs of the full autonomy stack.