Staff Simulation Platform Engineer

Merlin Labs•Boston, MA

3d•Onsite

About The Position

Merlin is a venture backed aerospace startup building a non-human pilot to enable both reduced crew and uncrewed flight. Backed by some of the world’s leading investors, Merlin is scaling alongside our customers to begin leveraging autonomy today to solve some of aviation’s biggest challenges. We are seeking a Staff Simulation Platform Engineer to design and build the next-generation simulation infrastructure that supports aircraft modeling, autonomy development, and hardware-in-the-loop validation across multiple aircraft platforms. This is a hands-on senior technical role focused on building scalable virtual environments, stabilizing integration infrastructure, and enabling scenario-based autonomy validation without linear growth in engineering effort per platform. This position reports to the Virtual Test Environments Lead and will play a central role in evolving our simulation ecosystem into a robust, scalable internal platform.

Requirements

7+ years of experience building or scaling complex simulation or autonomy validation environments
Experience contributing to or architecting large-scale simulation frameworks (e.g., AFSIM, Unreal/Unity-based simulation environments, CARLA, custom autonomy simulation platforms, or equivalent)
Strong software architecture experience in multi-component, distributed systems
Experience defining interface contracts, configuration schemas, or API boundaries in complex systems
Experience integrating simulation environments with real-time or hardware-in-the-loop systems
Hands-on proficiency in Python and/or C++
Demonstrated ability to modernize or scale legacy engineering toolchains
Applicants must be authorized to work in the United States without the need for visa sponsorship now or in the future.

Nice To Haves

Experience developing simulation or virtual validation environments for autonomy systems (automotive, aerospace, robotics)
Experience designing scenario-based validation systems
Familiarity with SIL/HIL integration
Experience implementing CI/CD in engineering-heavy environments
Background in safety-critical systems

Responsibilities

Define and implement structured topology and configuration definitions across aircraft platforms
Improve stability of routing layers, hardware/software interfaces, and runtime integration components
Introduce versioning and compatibility discipline across simulation artifacts
Build validation tooling to prevent integration breakage from reaching lab benches
Expand scenario-based simulation capabilities supporting autonomy development
Enable structured Monte Carlo and multi-scenario validation workflows
Develop infrastructure to simulate sensor inputs and autonomy behaviors in realistic operational contexts
Improve determinism and traceability of simulation runs
Implement CI/CD workflows for simulation artifacts
Improve reproducibility of simulation environments
Implement schema-driven validation mechanisms for interfaces
Build foundational platform components hands-on during early phases
Mentor and elevate engineers working on simulation tools and routing infrastructure
Establish extensibility and architectural standards within the simulation stack
Influence cross-functional stakeholders (Autonomy, Compute Platform, Systems, Lab Integration)