OpenAI · 14 hours ago
Simulation Realism Engineer
San Francisco, CA
Full-time
Onsite
Mid, Senior Level
$325K/yr - $405K/yrOpenAI is an AI research and deployment company dedicated to ensuring that general-purpose artificial intelligence benefits all of humanity. They are hiring a Simulation Realism Engineer to drive efforts in making simulation quantitatively real for robotics research and product development, focusing on closing sim-to-real gaps across physics, sensors, and rendering.
Agentic AIArtificial Intelligence (AI)Foundational AIGenerative AIMachine LearningNatural Language ProcessingSaaS
Responsibilities
Define and operationalize realism metrics & protocols. Design experiments and automated tests to find specific areas of non-realism, quantify gaps, and track regressions over time
Fine-tune engine parameters (contacts, friction, mass/density, solver settings) and object models so simulated dynamics match measured reality
Evaluate, integrate, and — where necessary — extend 3rd-party physics, rendering, and sensor simulation engines (e.g., Isaac, PhysX, MuJoCo, video renderers or sensor sim frameworks). Lead vendor POCs and benchmark features to influence roadmaps
Create standards, guidelines, and interactive tools for authoring and validating asset physical/visual properties; implement semi- or fully-automated pipelines to tune and optimize assets for target engines
Solve technical issues for running engines in the cloud (OS, drivers, GPU), parallelize simulations (batching many runs per engine instance), and harden real-world-facing pipelines so sims can run reliably at scale
Own validation campaigns (teleop, HIL regression suites, metric computation) and partner with research to close the loop between simulation improvements and downstream model performance
Document and scale best practices. Produce ergonomic templates, docs, and standards so dozens of engineers and researchers can author realistic tasks and assets quickly
Qualification
Required
Define and operationalize realism metrics & protocols
Design experiments and automated tests to find specific areas of non-realism, quantify gaps, and track regressions over time
Fine-tune engine parameters (contacts, friction, mass/density, solver settings) and object models so simulated dynamics match measured reality
Evaluate, integrate, and — where necessary — extend 3rd-party physics, rendering, and sensor simulation engines (e.g., Isaac, PhysX, MuJoCo, video renderers or sensor sim frameworks)
Lead vendor POCs and benchmark features to influence roadmaps
Create standards, guidelines, and interactive tools for authoring and validating asset physical/visual properties
Implement semi- or fully-automated pipelines to tune and optimize assets for target engines
Solve technical issues for running engines in the cloud (OS, drivers, GPU)
Parallelize simulations (batching many runs per engine instance)
Harden real-world-facing pipelines so sims can run reliably at scale
Own validation campaigns (teleop, HIL regression suites, metric computation)
Partner with research to close the loop between simulation improvements and downstream model performance
Document and scale best practices
Produce ergonomic templates, docs, and standards so dozens of engineers and researchers can author realistic tasks and assets quickly
Have a strong mathematical & physics background — rigid/soft-body dynamics, contact mechanics, or FEA
Have hands-on experience with at least one or two production physics engines and sensor/render stacks (MuJoCo, PhysX, Isaac Sim, Newton, GPU renderers, or equivalent)
Know how to measure/interpret their failure modes
Enjoy plumbing every layer of the sim stack: CAD/asset import, collision/visual mesh tradeoffs, contact tuning, real-time loading, and rendering pipelines
Have led projects that bridge sim and robotics, such as teleoperation data collection, hardware-in-the-loop regression tests, or digital twin efforts
Experienced building robust tools and processes — CI for sims, asset validation pipelines, or distributed GPU workloads
Care about documentation and ergonomics that let others be productive
Can collaborate broadly: you want to work directly with researchers to design experiments, with SWE/RE to ship tooling, and with vendors to run benchmarks and influence product roadmaps
Benefits
Relocation assistance to new employees
Company
OpenAI
OpenAI is an AI research and deployment company that develops advanced AI models, including ChatGPT. It is a sub-organization of OpenAI Foundation.
Founded in 2015
201-500 employees
H1B Sponsorship
OpenAI has a track record of offering H1B sponsorships. Please note that this does not
guarantee sponsorship for this specific role. Below presents additional info for your
reference. (Data Powered by US Department of Labor)
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Trends of Total Sponsorships
2025 (1)
2024 (1)
2023 (1)
2022 (18)
2021 (10)
2020 (6)
Funding
Current Stage
Growth StageTotal Funding
$79BKey Investors
The Walt Disney CompanySoftBankThrive Capital
2025-12-11Corporate Round· $1B
2025-10-02Secondary Market· $6.6B
2025-03-31Series Unknown· $40B
Leadership Team
Sam Altman
CEO & Co-Founder
Greg Brockman
President, Chairman, & Co-Founder
Recent News
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2026-01-17
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