Modeling & Simulation Engineer, Missiles

Description

The company builds defense products on Coherent Distributed Networks (CDN), which help warfighters, commercial air operators, and border protection teams respond faster and keep pace with changing threats.

Founded in 2022, the company has raised $1 billion from investors including 8VC, Accel, and Valor Equity Partners. It is headquartered in Los Angeles, with offices in Washington, D.C., San Francisco, San Diego, Seattle, and London.

The Modeling & Simulation team builds the simulations engineers use to design, integrate, test, and validate aerospace and defense systems. The team creates physics-based models, simulation environments, and analysis tools that reveal how a system will behave, lowering design risk before hardware is built, integrated, tested, or fielded.

In this role you will build and validate dynamic and closed-loop simulations for guided weapons, interceptors, missiles, and other flight vehicles. Programs can include ground- and air-launched weapons, tactical and strategic missiles, cruise and ballistic systems, hypersonic vehicles, and other advanced effectors.

Your work will span fast trajectory models, 3-DOF and high-fidelity 6-DOF simulations, software-in-the-loop, real-time, and hardware-in-the-loop systems, supporting design, guidance and seeker integration, performance analysis, verification, and test work from planning through preflight and postflight.

You do not need experience in every area listed. Depth in one or more relevant modeling and simulation domains is encouraged to apply.

Responsibilities

• Build, connect, and maintain 3-DOF and 6-DOF flight and engagement simulations for missiles and related vehicles.
• Code and verify equations of motion, frame transformations, rigid-body dynamics, numerical integration, kinematics, environment models, and state propagation.
• Model or integrate aerodynamics, propulsion, mass properties, inertia, actuators, control surfaces, thrust-vector control, navigation sensors, IMUs, GPS, seekers, fuzing, launch and ejection, staging, separation, atmosphere, wind, gravity, targets, and threats as needed.
• Bring guidance, navigation and estimation, autopilots, control laws, seeker and tracker functions, fire-control interfaces, tactical and embedded flight software, and hardware models into closed-loop runs.
• Assess trajectory and engagement results, including launch and intercept envelopes, time of flight and time to intercept, acquisition and handover, miss distance, accuracy, stability, robustness, actuator use, control margins, navigation error, seeker and terminal performance, and degraded or failed modes.
• Build error budgets and run Monte Carlo, sensitivity, uncertainty quantification, covariance, design-of-experiments, and robustness studies.
• Support design trades covering vehicle configuration, guidance concepts, control architecture, sensor choice, actuator performance, propulsion, aerodynamics, launch conditions, and operational scenarios.
• Turn system and subsystem requirements into model requirements, simulation cases, performance measures, verification methods, and evidence.
• Put models and flight or tactical software into desktop, SIL, SITL, HITL, HWIL, real-time, processor-in-the-loop, and batch environments.
• Support hardware and software labs with interface definition, timing analysis, real-time execution, hardware stimulation, test automation, and anomaly investigation.
• Produce preflight predictions, test scenarios and points, expected-performance envelopes, and flight or range-test analysis.
• Process telemetry and data from labs, ground tests, captive carry, flight tests, and ranges.
• Carry out postflight reconstruction, model correlation, parameter estimation, root-cause analysis, and resolution of simulation-to-test discrepancies.
• Build and maintain simulation software, model components, APIs, configuration systems, scenario tools, data pipelines, visualization tools, analysis workflows, and automated regression tests.
• Write model documentation, assumptions and limitations, validation evidence, performance reports, engineering review material, and customer and program deliverables.

Requirements

• Bachelor's degree in aerospace, mechanical, electrical, or computer engineering, computer science, physics, applied mathematics, or a related technical discipline, or equivalent demonstrated expertise.
• Relevant experience in missile or flight-vehicle modeling and simulation, flight dynamics, GNC, trajectory analysis, weapon-system performance, or a closely related field.
• Hands-on experience developing, integrating, or using 3-DOF or 6-DOF dynamic simulations.
• Solid grounding in flight mechanics, rigid-body dynamics, coordinate systems and transformations, numerical integration, control or estimation concepts, and dynamic-system analysis.
• Demonstrated depth in at least one missile modeling area: flight dynamics and vehicle modeling, guidance-law development or analysis, flight-control or autopilot modeling, navigation and multisensor integration, trajectory optimization or weapon-system performance analysis, seeker, tracker, fire-control, or terminal-engagement integration, or real-time, HITL, or HWIL simulation.
• Strong programming ability in at least one scientific or analytical environment such as MATLAB, Python, or C++.
• Experience with Monte Carlo, error-budget, sensitivity, robustness, uncertainty quantification, or design-of-experiments work.
• Experience validating or correlating dynamic models against analytical references, subsystem, lab, ground, telemetry, flight, range, or other authoritative data.
• Experience working with system requirements, subsystem interfaces, test objectives, verification methods, and performance criteria.
• Experience with Git, code review, automated testing, issue tracking, continuous integration, and reproducible software or analysis workflows.
• Ability to work independently, make sound technical judgments, document assumptions and limitations clearly, and collaborate across engineering disciplines.
• Active Secret clearance.
• Preferred: Master's degree or higher in aerospace, mechanical, or electrical engineering, applied mathematics, or a related field.
• Preferred: experience with tactical, strategic, or ballistic missiles, interceptors, cruise missiles, air- or ground-launched weapons, hypersonic vehicles, launch vehicles, or other advanced guided flight systems.
• Preferred: experience designing, tuning, or evaluating guidance laws, autopilots, control laws, state estimators, Kalman filters, or multisensor navigation systems.
• Preferred: experience with classical, modern, robust, optimal, adaptive, or nonlinear control methods.
• Preferred: experience with trajectory optimization, optimal control, multidisciplinary design optimization, launch-zone analysis, intercept analysis, or engageability analysis.
• Preferred: experience creating or integrating aerodynamic databases, propulsion models, boost-phase models, thrust-vector-control models, staging or separation models, and mass-property models.
• Preferred: experience integrating RF, EO/IR, multimode, passive, or other seeker and target-tracking models.
• Preferred: experience with fire-control, weapon-target assignment, target-state estimation, fuzing, lethality, or endgame-performance models.
• Preferred: experience integrating embedded flight software, tactical software, auto-generated code, or processor-representative software into closed-loop simulations.
• Preferred: experience supporting flight-test planning, range operations, telemetry analysis, preflight prediction, postflight reconstruction, or flight-anomaly resolution.
• Preferred: experience with large-scale or high-performance Monte Carlo runs, parallel simulation, cloud or cluster execution, or simulation campaign orchestration.
• Preferred: experience with MBSE, model-based development, requirements traceability, formal V&V, verification evidence, or simulation-credibility assessments.
• Preferred: experience supporting DoD, DARPA, AFRL, ONR, MDA, NAVAIR, DEVCOM, intelligence-community, or advanced aerospace programs.
• Preferred: active or eligible to obtain and maintain a Top Secret / Sensitive Compartmented Information clearance.

Conditions

This is an onsite position.

Benefits

• Medical, dental, and vision coverage, with premiums paid 100% by the company.
• 401(k) with a 50% company match on up to 6% of pay, plus FSA, HSA, life insurance, and more.
• Free lunch every day.
• No-meeting Fridays.
• Unlimited PTO.
• Casual dress code.
• Competitive base salary and generous pre-IPO stock option grants.
• Relocation assistance.
• Annual bonuses are coming soon.