Six Figure Work

Robotics Research Engineer - Robot Simulation and Evaluation

NVIDIA

Company websitenvidia.com (NVIDIA, opens in new tab)

Base salary $184,000  to $356,500

Employer-published annual base salary, USD. Advertised base range in Santa Clara, CA

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  • LocationSanta Clara, CA
  • WorkplaceWorkplace not stated
  • Status at last checkSource accepting applications when checked
  • Last checked (6 min ago) · observed since

About this job

In the NVIDIA Isaac team, we build tools that bring the power of the GPU to bear on one of today’s grand challenges: physical AI. Doing what’s never been done before takes vision, innovation, and the world’s best talent. As an NVIDIAN, you’ll be immersed in an inclusive, encouraging environment where we all work together to advance the frontiers of accelerated computing.

We’re looking for a research engineer to join our team to develop simulation tools built for scientists and companies that are using machine learning to solve the future of robotics. In this role, you will drive cross-team collaboration between Isaac product engineering and NVIDIA Robotics research: translating research ideas into product-ready Isaac Lab Arena capabilities, bringing product and user feedback back into the research loop, and driving adoption with research users. You'll join a team of robotics engineers who work at the intersection of simulation and machine learning. Our goal is to build the industry's leading tool for evaluating robot foundation models in simulation. This mission builds on NVIDIA's history of creating virtual worlds using its groundbreaking technology on photorealistic rendering and physics simulation technologies.

What you'll be doing:

  • Building simulation frameworks for training and evaluating robot foundation models on top of NVIDIA's Omniverse platform.

  • Partner directly with research to design, implement, and evaluate novel algorithms for robot learning.

  • Driving technical architecture, setting evaluation standards, and cross-team leadership between Research and Product.

  • Working as part of a high-paced software engineering team: design/code reviews, testing, continuous integration, deployment.

  • Training and evaluating robot foundation models.

  • Integrating modern LLM and agentic workflows into simulation and robotics workflows.

  • Working with researchers and product engineers to translate research ideas into Isaac Lab Arena capabilities that can scale to NVIDIA's user base.

  • Keeping up to date with the state-of-the-art in robotics research.

What we need to see:

  • PhD degree in Computer Science, Robotics, or a related field (or equivalent experience).

  • 8+ years of relevant industry or post-degree research engineering experience in robotics, simulation, or robot learning, with ability to translate research prototypes into product or platform capabilities.

  • Proven track record of software design and translating research prototypes into production-ready software platforms.

  • Proficiency using Python and development experience with deep learning software stacks (Pytorch, Jax, etc.).

Ways to stand out from the crowd:

  • High-impact publications at top robotics and machine learning venues (e.g., CoRL, RSS, ICRA, NeurIPS).

  • Robot learning expertise with reinforcement learning and/or imitation learning,

  • Deep expertise in GPU-accelerated physics simulation engines (e.g., PhysX, Isaac Gym/Isaac Lab, Newton).

  • Experience with NVIDIA robotics ecosystem tools (CUDA, warp, Isaac Lab, ROS).

  • Developing and maintaining open-source projects.

Your base salary will be determined based on your location, experience, and other objective job-related factors. The expected base salary ranges for this position are:
184,000 USD – 287,500 USD for Level 4; and 224,000 USD – 356,500 USD for Level 5.

You will also be eligible for equity and benefits.

Applications for this job will be accepted at least until November 3, 2026.

This posting is for an existing vacancy. 

NVIDIA uses AI tools in its recruiting processes.

NVIDIA is committed to fostering an inclusive work environment and proud to be an equal opportunity employer. As we highly value diversity in our current and future employees, we do not discriminate (including in our hiring and promotion practices) on the basis of race, religion, color, national origin, gender, gender expression, sexual orientation, age, marital status, veteran status, disability status or any other characteristic protected by law.

Source: NVIDIA on Workday · View original posting (opens in new tab)

Pay in context

This role's base floor ($184,000) is above 46% of the 1,507 Data & ML roles in California listed on this site; 30 others list the same floor. Their median floor is $188,000; the middle half runs from $159,311 to $229,700.

Only jobs on this site count, and each one publishes a base salary of $100,000 or more, so this compares six-figure jobs with each other, not with the whole market. Computed Nov 7, 2026.

This range next to 6 other live NVIDIA roles with the nearest advertised base floor
Chart as a table
This range next to 6 other live NVIDIA roles with the nearest advertised base floor
RolePublished base
Robotics Research Engineer - Robot Simulation and Evaluation (this listing)$184,000 - $356,500
Senior Software Engineer, Subnet Management$184,000 - $356,500
Senior Software Engineer, AI Networking$184,000 - $356,500
Senior Software Engineer, Machine Learning Safety$184,000 - $356,500
Senior Firmware Security Architect, Networking$184,000 - $356,500
Senior Compiler Engineer - AI$184,000 - $287,500
Senior System Software Engineer, Performance - CUDA Driver$184,000 - $356,500

Same $100K to $400K scale as every card. All NVIDIA roles · How to read the bar

Observed changes

  1. First observed on the employer's board
  2. Began meeting the published-salary criteria
Observed since
Employer-stated posting date
2026-10-30
Where this pay comes from

Location as the employer wrote it: US, CA, Santa Clara (Levels 4-5 combined)

184,000 USD – 287,500 USD for Level 4; and 224,000 USD – 356,500 USD for Level 5.

Method
Employer text, read with fixed rules and re-verified
Checked
Rule set
us-base-v2

The pay passage appears in the employer's own job text. Fixed, deterministic rules located it, and the passage below was checked against the stored copy of the posting.

What we verified

  • The pay figures come from the employer's own listing, quoted exactly above.
  • The pay is an annual base salary in US dollars with a minimum of at least $100,000.
  • The role was publicly listed on the employer's job board when last checked.

We do not verify what the employer will actually offer, whether the employer is still recruiting for the role, or anything beyond what the employer published. Full methodology.