Engineer II, Payload Modeling & Simulation (Dallas/San Diego) (R4536)

JOB DESCRIPTION:
The Software Integration & Operations (SIO) group turns frontier autonomy into mission-ready aircraft. We own the commit-to-flight pipeline—deterministic aircraft and mission simulation, HIL/VIL integration, CI/CD, automated flight qualification testing, and release engineering. Our goal is simple: make AI fly—safely, repeatably, and fast.

As a Modeling & Simulation Engineer, you will be responsible for improving and adding to our sensor and communications model suite so that our operator training and internal engineering pipelines have a seamless translation from sim to real results.

What You'll Do:
• Develop and enhance radar sensor models for use in simulation and evaluation of aeronautical vehicles.
• Translate theoretical models into efficient, reliable C++ implementations with a focus on numerical accuracy and performance.
• Validate models against real-world data and authoritative references, including field test data and calibration procedures.
• Collaborate with simulation and training application teams to ensure models integrate cleanly into operator-facing tools.
• Design automated validation and regression testing strategies for mathematical models to ensure fidelity across releases.
• Prototype and evaluate new modeling techniques (reduced-order models, uncertainty quantification, machine learning–based surrogates) to push the state of the art.
• Document assumptions, equations, and validation results so that both engineers and operators can trust model outputs.

Required Qualifications:
• BS or higher in Aerospace Engineering, Applied Math, Physics, or related field with 3+ years of aerospace modeling experience.
• C++ foundation with experience implementing numerical methods.
• Demonstrated experience with aerospace models such as: Radar sensors, Radio communications systems
• Experience validating simulations against real-world or experimental data.
• Ability to write clear documentation explaining assumptions, limitations, and expected behaviors of models.

Preferred Qualifications:
• 1+ years of experience working on pilot/operator training systems.
• Experience with Eigen or SciPy for model prototyping and validation.
• Familiarity with state estimation sensor models (GPS, IMU, Gyro, etc) for simulation environments.
• Demonstrated experience with payload sensor models including: Laser senros, IR and optical cameras
• Knowledge of uncertainty quantification and statistical analysis methods.
• Experience with parallelization or GPU acceleration for compute-heavy models.
• Strong problem-solving mindset with a collaborative and detail-oriented approach.
• Familiarity with Python for test automation and data analysis pipelines.
• Passion for aerospace and autonomous vehicle systems.

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