Research Engineer – Simulation at Eka (Boston, MA)

Eka· Boston, MA·2d ago

Role details

Work type

Onsite

Employment

Full-Time

Job description

EKA ROBOTICS

Eka Robotics is on a mission to build intelligence for the physical world - robots that are fast, general, and reliable. Our approach, grounded in physics, unlocks superhuman capabilities. We are defining the frontier of robotics research and deployment.

Our team consists of pioneers in robotics and machine learning. We are now hiring to scale our R&D effort. We are looking for hands-on individuals who are excited to help shape the future of robotics.

RESPONSIBILITIES

Evaluate and extend physics engines (e.g. MuJoCo, Newton)
Scale and optimize GPU-based physics simulators for massive training workloads
Improve the realism of contact-rich manipulation environments
Create tools and automated workflows to validate, tune, and optimize physical and visual assets

MINIMUM QUALIFICATIONS

Bachelor’s degree or higher in Computer Science, Robotics, Engineering, or a related field
Strong C++ and Python programming skills
Hands-on experience with physics engines
Proven ability to build and scale high-performance, physics-based simulation environments

PREFERRED QUALIFICATIONS

Strong mathematical & physics background – particularly expertise in rigid/soft-body dynamics, contact mechanics, FEA, and numerical stability
Experience across the entire simulation stack, from CAD import and mesh optimization to real-time rendering
Experience with reinforcement learning, policy training, differentiable physics, or neural simulation models
Background in contact-rich manipulation or legged locomotion
Strong knowledge of GPU acceleration and robotics model formats (URDF, SDF, USD)
Proven success deploying simulation-trained policies onto real-world hardware

Why work at Eka

Cutting-Edge Mission: Work on the frontier of embodied AI and robotics, tackling the fundamental challenge of building machines that can interact with the physical world.
World-Class Team: Join a team of experts from top-tier institutions (MIT, Berkeley, DeepMind, Boston Dynamics) and work alongside leaders in the field.
High Impact, Early Stage: As one of the first ~20 employees, you will have an outsized impact on the company's technology, culture, and direction.
In-Office Culture: All roles are based in Boston, MA, and are in-office, fostering close collaboration on complex hardware and software problems.
Diverse, High-Caliber Roles: Openings span from ML/RL engineering and simulation to mechanical design, embedded systems, and business operations, offering a wide range of challenging work.

About Eka

Company Overview

One-liner: Eka Robotics is building general-purpose, dexterous robots that master physics through self-supervised learning and a novel Vision-Force-Action (VFA) model, aiming to deploy safe, collaborative intelligence into the physical world.
Entity Type: Private (Startup, Pre-Seed / Angel-backed)
Headquarters: Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States
Founded: 2025
Founders: Pulkit Agrawal and Tuomas Haarnoja

Core Business

Primary industry/industries: Robotics Engineering, Artificial Intelligence, Hardware, Automation
Target customers: B2B, Enterprise (logistics, manufacturing, material handling)
Mission or purpose statement: To build intelligence for the physical world in its native language: force, creating robots that master physics, collaborate safely with humans, and generalize across objects, tasks, and environments.

Products & Services

Vision-Force-Action (VFA) Model: A new AI foundation model that unites generality, performance, and safety. It allows robots to perceive the world visually, interact with it through force (the "native language" of physics), and execute actions. This model is designed to overcome the traditional trade-off between generality and performance in robotics.
Dexterous Robotic Manipulation Platform: A hardware and software platform for dexterous, collaborative robots. The platform is designed to be safe around humans, environment-agnostic, and capable of mastering the unexpected through a single model that generalizes across objects, tasks, and environments.

Market Standing

Valuation/Market Cap: Not publicly available (Pre-Seed / Angel-backed startup).
Key Metric: Total Funding: Not publicly available (described as "angel-backed" with no known external funding rounds disclosed).
Notable Investors/Partners: Angel-backed; specific investors not publicly disclosed. The founding team has deep ties to MIT, Berkeley, Harvard, DeepMind, Microsoft, and Boston Dynamics.
Growth Signals: Extremely early stage (founded in 2025). Despite this, the company has a very high growth trajectory in terms of hiring and web presence. LinkedIn reports 6 employees with +300% monthly growth, and 11 active job postings. Website traffic is growing +254.5% monthly.

Competitive Advantages

Founding Team & Research Pedigree: Co-founded by Pulkit Agrawal (MIT professor, leader of the Improbable AI Lab, 2024 IEEE Early Academic Career Award) and Tuomas Haarnoja (ex-DeepMind). The team includes talent from MIT, Berkeley, Harvard, CMU, DeepMind, Microsoft, and Boston Dynamics.
Novel Technical Approach (VFA Model): Their core technology, the Vision-Force-Action (VFA) model, is a claimed breakthrough that unites generality (a single model for many tasks), performance (speed and reliability), and safety (force-based interaction). This is a significant differentiator in the robotics space, which often forces a trade-off between these three attributes.
Self-Supervised Learning & Sim-to-Real: The company pioneers self-supervised learning and sim-to-real reinforcement learning, enabling robots to develop "common sense" and physical intuition automatically without massive amounts of human-labeled data.
World-Class Talent Magnet: Despite being a very early-stage startup, they are attracting top-tier talent from leading tech companies and research labs, indicating a strong technical vision and culture.

Strategic Focus

Productization & Deployment: The company is actively hiring for roles across engineering, hardware, and operations, signaling a strong push to move from research to a deployable product.
Scaling the Team: With 11 open positions for a company of ~6 employees, the immediate strategic focus is on aggressive team building across all functions (ML, hardware, software, operations).
Building the Foundation: Current priorities include developing the core VFA model, building the physical robotic platform, creating robust simulation environments, and establishing operational processes for scaling.

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