Simulation Engineer III - Material Handling Equipment (MHE)

The Simulation Engineer III builds and validates discrete-event simulation and emulation models of automated material handling systems — conveyor and sortation, AS/RS and shuttle systems, goods-to-person, AMRs/AGVs, robotic picking and palletizing, and the labor and processes around them. The models this role produces answer the questions that decide a project: Will the design hit peak throughput? Where does it bottleneck? How much buffer, how many stations, how many robots, how many people?

This is a hands-on modeling role with real customer exposure. You will support pursuits alongside sales and solution design, defend designs in front of customer engineering teams, de-risk systems before steel is ordered, and use emulation to shorten on-site commissioning. At Level III you own the simulation scope on multiple concurrent projects with minimal supervision, and you help less experienced engineers get better at the craft.

Key Responsibilities

Simulation Modeling & Analysis

• Build, verify, and validate discrete-event simulation models of proposed and existing material handling systems using [FlexSim / AutoMod / Emulate3D / Simio / AnyLogic / Plant Simulation].

• Translate concept drawings, equipment specifications, rate assumptions, and operating procedures into accurate model logic, including routing rules, recirculation, induction strategies, and exception handling.

• Analyze customer order and inventory data — order profiles, lines per order, units per line, SKU velocity, cube and weight, seasonality, hourly and peak-day profiles — and develop the design-day and peak-hour scenarios that models run against.

• Quantify system throughput, capacity, utilization, bottlenecks, accumulation and buffer sizing, staffing requirements, and order cycle time; run sensitivity and what-if analyses across growth, mix shift, and failure scenarios.

• Apply sound statistical practice: warm-up periods, replication counts, confidence intervals, and documented verification and validation steps so results hold up under customer scrutiny.

• Produce clear deliverables — result summaries, charts, animations, and written assumptions and limitations — that a non-simulation audience can act on.

Solution Development & Customer Support

• Work with solution design, sales engineering, and estimating during pursuits to compare alternative concepts, right-size equipment, and remove cost that analysis shows are unnecessary.

• Present findings and 3D animations in design reviews, proposal defenses, and customer workshops; explain the assumptions behind the numbers and where the risk sits.

• Support post-award design finalization and, after go-live, reconcile modeled performance against actual system data to improve future modeling accuracy.

Technical Leadership

• Own simulation scope, hour estimates, and schedule commitments across multiple concurrent projects.

• Peer-review models built by other engineers and mentor Simulation Engineers I and II on modeling technique, data analysis, and customer communication.

• Contribute to and maintain reusable component libraries, model templates, data-processing tools, and internal modeling standards.

• Stay current on MHE technologies, vendor equipment capabilities, and simulation software releases, and bring that knowledge back to the team.

Preferred Qualifications

• Master's degree in industrial engineering, Operations Research, or Supply Chain.

• Emulation and virtual commissioning experience with PLC-connected models.

• Familiarity with WMS, WCS, or WES platforms and how order release and wave strategy affect system performance.

• Exposure to AMR/AGV fleets, robotic each-picking, or automated storage vendors.

• Experience in e-commerce, retail, grocery, cold chain, 3PL, or parcel environments.

• Data visualization experience (Power BI, Tableau) and comfort working in CAD or coordination tools such as AutoCAD, Navisworks, or Revit.

• Lean, Six Sigma, or continuous improvement certification.

• Bachelor's degree in Industrial Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Systems Engineering, Operations Research, Supply Chain, or a related technical field.

• 5+ years of professional discrete-event simulation experience, including at least 3 years modeling material handling, warehouse, distribution, manufacturing, or parcel operations.

• Demonstrated proficiency in at least one major simulation platform (FlexSim, AutoMod, Emulate3D, Simio, AnyLogic, Plant Simulation, or equivalent), with the ability to build complex custom logic rather than only assembling standard objects.

• Working knowledge of MHE subsystems and their operating characteristics: conveyor and accumulation, shoe/crossbelt/tilt-tray sortation, AS/RS and shuttles, goods-to-person, print-and-apply, palletizing, and mobile robotics.

• Strong data skills — able to profile and clean large order history files independently using SQL, Python, or equivalent, without waiting on someone else to prepare the data.

• Scripting or programming ability in at least one of Python, C#, VBA, FlexScript, or a comparable language.

• Proven ability to explain technical results to non-technical stakeholders, including customer operations and executive audiences.

• Ability to travel up to 25%, domestically and occasionally internationally.

• Medical Insurance

• Dental Insurance

• Vision Insurance

• Health Care Concierge Service

• 401(k) Retirement Plan (Pre-tax & Roth)

• Company paid Basic Life Insurance, Short-Term Disability & Long-Term Disability

• Voluntary Life & AD&D Insurance

• Voluntary Accident, Critical Illness & Hospital Indemnity Insurance

• Pet Insurance

• Milk Stork Program

• Wellness Program with gift card redemption and wellness challenges

• Paid Time Off (Vacation, Sick & 10 Holidays)

• Training & Development
  
  KPI Solutions provides equal employment opportunity to all individuals regardless of their race, color, creed, religion, gender, age, sexual orientation, national origin, disability, veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by states, federal, or local law.