---
title: 'Simulation and Validation Software Engineer at Mind Robotics'
canonical: 'https://feeny.ai/job/simulation-and-validation-software-engineer-mind-robotics-palo-alto-byck56jcmcar'
type: 'job'
last_seen: '2026-09-04'
---

# Simulation and Validation Software Engineer at Mind Robotics

- **Company:** Mind Robotics
- **Location:** Palo Alto, CA
- **Employment:** full-time
- **Work type:** onsite
- **Posted:** 2026-08-13
- **Last confirmed live:** 2026-09-04
- **Apply:** https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/mindrobotics/7d009e77-9b6d-417c-a0a2-fde94587e1f1

## Job description

## ABOUT MIND:

Mind Robotics is building Physical AI for real-world industrial deployment, starting with the factory floor. We believe the hardest problems in AI are solved when researchers and engineers are hands-on with the physical world every day - and we're looking for people who are passionate about robotics, value ownership, and are excited to tackle difficult problems. Join us if you want to move beyond digital intelligence and put intelligence into motion.

ABOUT THE TEAM AND THE ROLE:

At Mind Robotics, we're building generalized physical AI — robotic systems capable of dexterous, adaptive, and reasoning-intensive work in real-world industrial environments. Validation is how we make sure our robots actually work — not just once on a bench, but every time, on every robot, in the field. Closing the gap between simulation, hardware test, and the real robot is what makes that reliability possible.

We're looking for a Software Engineer - Validation & Simulation to build the test infrastructure, integrate simulation, and develop validation pipelines that let our firmware, controls, and robot runtime teams move fast without breaking robots.

Responsibilities:

- Design and build automated test suites that validate firmware, controls, and runtime behavior across software-in-the-loop (SIL) environments.
- Integrate simulation environment inputs and dynamic models that stand in for the real robot — including simulated sensor inputs like camera feeds — so runtime and middleware teams can develop without physical hardware.
- Own regression test infrastructure and tooling for result analysis, failure triage, and coverage tracking across firmware, controls, runtime, and hardware.
- Collaborate with firmware, controls, and runtime engineers to define testability requirements and turn real-world failures into repeatable automated test cases.
- Drive validation burn-down during integration and assembly milestones, tracking issues to closure across teams.

## REQUIREMENTS:

- Technical degree in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, Electrical Engineering, or equivalent experience and evidence of exceptional ability.
- Strong software engineering fundamentals, with fluency in Python and comfort in C/C++ or Rust for debugging at the firmware level.
- Demonstrated experience building validation, simulation, or test infrastructure for real physical systems — robots, motors, actuators, or similar.
- You are comfortable with ambiguity, move fast, and have an "engineering curiosity" that drives you to understand how the entire system works, not just your part.

## NICE TO HAVES:

- Experience validating or testing robotics middleware or runtime systems (ROS2 or similar).
- Experience with dynamic modeling or simulation tools (MATLAB/Simulink, MuJoCo, Gazebo, or equivalent) for robotic or actuated systems.
- Familiarity with functional safety standards (IEC 61508, ISO 13849, ISO 26262, or similar) and safety validation processes.
- Comfort with lab equipment (oscilloscopes, power supplies, logic analyzers) and embedded debugging tools (JTAG, SWD).
- Experience with agent-driven coding practices (e.g., Claude Code, Codex, Cursor) to accelerate test and software development.

## About Mind Robotics

## Company Overview
- **One-liner**: Mind Robotics builds AI-driven robotic systems for industrial deployment, focusing on creating general-purpose physical intelligence for the world's most demanding manufacturing challenges.
- **Entity Type**: Private (Series A)
- **Headquarters**: Palo Alto, California, United States
- **Founded**: 2025
- **Founders**: Not publicly disclosed (founding technical team includes Sriramana Sankar, Ruijie He, Vishal J., and Ury Zhilinsky as Founding Technical Members)

## Core Business
- **Primary industry/industries**: Robotics Engineering, Industrial Automation, Artificial Intelligence
- **Target customers**: B2B, Enterprise (industrial manufacturing, factory floors)
- **Mission or purpose statement**: "Building the generalized physical intelligence required to solve the world’s most demanding industrial challenges." The company believes the path to general-purpose robotics begins where the need is most acute and the environment is most structured: the factory floor.

## Products & Services
- **AI-Enabled Industrial Robots**: Intelligent robotic systems designed for industrial deployment, focusing on creating collaborative platforms for manufacturing environments. The company builds "physical AI" for real-world industrial challenges, emphasizing hardware-in-the-loop development where researchers and engineers work hands-on with hardware.

## Market Standing
- **Valuation/Market Cap**: Not disclosed
- **Key Metric**: Total Funding of **$615M** across two rounds
- **Notable Investors/Partners**: Andreessen Horowitz (co-lead Series A), Accel (co-lead Series A), Kleiner Perkins (led most recent round), Eclipse (seed), Prysm Capital, Menlo Ventures. Partners include Silicon Valley Robotics.
- **Growth Signals**: 
  - Raised a $115M seed round in late 2025, followed by a massive $500M Series A in March 2026 co-led by Accel and Andreessen Horowitz
  - Closed an additional funding round in May 2026 led by Kleiner Perkins
  - Headcount of ~21 employees with a monthly growth rate of +42.9%
  - LinkedIn following of 9,654 with +38.5% monthly growth
  - Talent sourced from top companies including Tesla, Rivian, Databricks, and Physical Intelligence

## Competitive Advantages
- **Massive capital advantage**: With $615M in total funding raised within its first year, Mind Robotics is one of the best-capitalized early-stage robotics startups, enabling aggressive hiring and R&D investment.
- **Top-tier investor backing**: Backed by Andreessen Horowitz, Accel, and Kleiner Perkins — some of the most prestigious venture firms in the world.
- **Hardware-in-the-loop philosophy**: The company emphasizes that the hardest problems in AI are solved when researchers and engineers are hands-on with hardware, creating a unique engineering culture focused on real-world deployment.
- **Lean, high-impact team**: With only ~21 employees and massive funding, each individual has outsized ownership and impact.

## Strategic Focus
- **Industrial deployment first**: Targeting factory floors as the most structured environment for deploying general-purpose robotics, believing this is the fastest path to broadly capable robots.
- **Physical AI development**: Building the intelligence layer for robots that can operate in messy, complex real-world environments.
- **Aggressive scaling**: With $615M in funding, the company is rapidly expanding its team across hardware engineering, software, and data platform roles.

## Why Work Here
- **Massive impact per person**: The company explicitly states it is "building a lean, collaborative team where every individual has a massive impact" — a rare promise for a company with over half a billion in funding.
- **Hardware-in-the-loop culture**: Engineers and researchers work directly with physical hardware daily, solving real-world problems rather than just simulation.
- **Top-tier team**: Colleagues include alumni from Tesla, Rivian, Databricks, and Physical Intelligence, creating a high-caliber peer group.
- **Work policy**: Hybrid workspace (combination of remote and on-site work) with a strong in-office presence in Palo Alto, CA. Most roles appear to be on-site or hybrid.
- **Open roles**: 22 active positions across hardware engineering (actuation, motor design, electrical design, tactile sensing), software engineering (robotics, firmware, controls, ML infrastructure), and data platform roles.
- **Culture highlights**: The company looks for "builders who are passionate about robotics and live for the challenge of making systems work in messy, complex environments." They emphasize a lean, collaborative team where every individual has massive impact.

## Sources
1. [mindrobotics.com](https://www.mindrobotics.com/)
2. [mindrobotics.com/careers](https://www.mindrobotics.com/careers)
3. [LinkedIn - Mind Robotics](https://www.linkedin.com/company/mindrobotics)
4. [Built In - Mind Robotics](https://builtin.com/company/mind-robotics)
5. [Ashby Jobs - Mind Robotics](https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/mindrobotics)

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