Applications Engineering, Architect- Missile Defense

Synopsys; Exton (PA); On-site; USD 140,000 - 190,000; Full time

Job summary

Synopsys, Inc. seeks an accomplished modeling engineer to design and validate high-fidelity air and missile defense simulations for DoD programs.

You will build trajectory models, integrate radar phenomenology, and produce synthetic datasets for AI/ML training with input from government stakeholders. You will lead cross-functional teams across government and industry, ensuring fidelity spans sensor fusion, track data, and battle management concepts.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Engineering, Physics, Computer Science, or related field with 12+ years of professional experience, or Master's with 10+ years, or PhD with 7+ years.
• US citizen required with an active DoD TS/SCI clearance with current status.

Responsibilities

• Build high-fidelity models of threat trajectories, including staging events, flight dynamics, and multi-spectral signature behaviors across RF, IR, and other sensor-observable spectra.
• Develop and integrate radar phenomenology models across radar bands and sensor architectures for detection, tracking, and characterization in realistic engagement scenarios.
• Support synthetic dataset creation for AI/ML training, including target-present and target-absent scenarios to reduce algorithmic bias and improve robustness.
• Collaborate with signature characterization experts, sensor engineers, and government stakeholders to ensure fidelity aligns with operational requirements.
• Implement sensing system models within frameworks like STK and AFSIM, covering track fusion, discrimination logic, and custody management across the kill chain.
• Provide technical leadership on modeling requirements, simulation architecture, and fidelity tradeoffs for programs involving generative simulation and AI-enabled battle management.
• Integrate threat modeling and sensor simulations into larger DoD analysis environments used for system development and algorithm evaluation.

Skills

MATLAB

Python

STK

AFSIM

Radar phenomenology

Trajectory modeling

Education

Bachelor's degree + 12+ years

Tools

MATLAB

Python

STK

AFSIM

Job description

***Please note that you will primarily be working on site with a customer in Huntsville, AL along with some travel to Dayton, OH and Exton, PA***

We Are

Synopsys is the leader in engineering solutions from silicon to systems, enabling customers to rapidly innovate AI-powered products. We deliver industry-leading silicon design, IP, simulation and analysis solutions, and design services. We partner closely with our customers across a wide range of industries to maximize their R&D capability and productivity, powering innovation today that ignites the ingenuity of tomorrow.

You Are

You have spent a decade or more building and validating models that represent the real physics of missile defense systems, not simplified abstractions that look good in PowerPoint. You understand that a radar signature is not just a number in a spreadsheet, it is a time-varying, multi-spectral phenomenon shaped by flight dynamics, staging events, and sensor geometry, and you know how to represent that complexity in simulation environments that people actually trust.

You have sat in rooms with government customers, sensor engineers, and algorithm developers, and walked out with a shared understanding of what fidelity actually means for the problem at hand. You do not wait for perfect data. You build models from what exists, validate against what you can measure, and document the assumptions so the next person knows where the edges are.

You think in kill chains. You know that a high-fidelity trajectory model is only useful if it feeds realistic observables into the sensor sim, which feeds track data into the fusion layer, which informs the battle management decision. You have worked across that stack, and you know where the seams are.

At Ansys Government Initiatives, you will work on air and missile defense simulations that shape how the DoD evaluates threats, tests algorithms, and trains AI systems. The work is technical, the stakes are real, and the team expects you to lead.

What You'll Be Doing

• Build high-fidelity models of threat trajectories, including staging events, flight dynamics, and multi-spectral signature behaviors across RF, IR, and other sensor-observable spectra
• Develop and integrate radar phenomenology models that represent how different radar bands and sensor architectures detect, track, and characterize targets in realistic engagement scenarios
• Support the creation of synthetic datasets for AI/ML training, including target-present and target-absent scenarios designed to reduce algorithmic bias and improve model robustness
• Collaborate with signature characterization experts, sensor engineers, and government stakeholders to ensure simulation fidelity aligns with operational requirements and physics-based constraints
• Implement sensing system models within frameworks like STK and AFSIM, representing track fusion, discrimination logic, and custody management across the missile defense kill chain
• Provide technical leadership on modeling requirements, simulation architecture, and fidelity tradeoffs for emerging programs involving generative simulation and AI-enabled battle management
• Integrate threat modeling and sensor simulations into larger analysis and experimentation environments used by DoD customers for system development and algorithm evaluation

The Impact You Will Have

• Your models will directly inform how the DoD evaluates next-generation air and missile defense systems, shaping acquisition decisions and operational concepts
• The synthetic datasets you generate will train AI/ML systems used for real-time threat discrimination, sensor fusion, and battle management decision support
• Your expertise in radar phenomenology and signature modeling will ensure that simulations reflect the actual physics of sensing, not oversimplified assumptions that break under scrutiny
• The simulation environments you build will enable government customers to test algorithms, evaluate system performance, and conduct mission-level analysis without relying solely on live flight tests
• Your technical leadership will set the standard for fidelity and rigor across AGI's missile defense modeling efforts, influencing how the team approaches complex multi-domain problems
• The frameworks you implement will support rapid experimentation and iteration, accelerating the development cycle for AI-enabled defense systems
• Your work will contribute to the national security mission by providing trusted modeling and simulation capabilities that support critical defense programs

What You'll Need

• Bachelor's degree in Engineering, Physics, Computer Science, or related field with 12+ years of professional experience, or Master's with 10+ years, or PhD with 7+ years
• US citizen required with an active DoV TS/SCI clearance
• Deep domain knowledge in air and missile defense systems, including sensor architectures, threat trajectories, and multi-spectral signature modeling
• Demonstrated experience modeling radar phenomenology and RF sensing systems, including understanding of radar bands, target detection, and sensor-observable behaviors
• Hands-on experience with missile flight dynamics, staging events, and how trajectory behaviors impact sensor observables across the engagement timeline
• Proficiency in MATLAB or Python for building models, scripting interfaces, and integrating with DoD systems and simulation frameworks
• Experience with Systems Tool Kit (STK) and Advanced Framework for Simulation, Integration and Modeling (AFSIM) is a strong plus, as is familiarity with track fusion, discrimination algorithms, and battle management concepts

Who You Are

• You can explain a complex radar phenomenology tradeoff to a government program manager in two sentences without losing the technical nuance, and then turn around and debug a MATLAB script with a junior engineer
• You have worked with real-world radar or EO/IR data, not just textbook examples, and you know the difference between a model that validates against measured data and one that just looks plausible
• You are comfortable operating in ambiguity, building models when requirements are still being defined, and documenting your assumptions so others can build on your work
• You push back when a simulation requirement does not align with the physics or when a dataset generation plan will introduce bias that breaks the AI model downstream
• You manage multiple technical efforts simultaneously, keeping stakeholders aligned, timelines on track, and deliverables moving without sacrificing technical rigor
• You bring a point of view on what good modeling looks like, and you are not afraid to advocate for the right approach even when it is harder or takes longer

The Team You'll Be Part Of

You will join the Ansys Customer Excellence team within Ansys Government Initiatives, a group focused on advanced modeling and simulation for aerospace and defense customers. The team works closely with DoD laboratories, government organizations, and defense research facilities on air and missile defense programs. You will collaborate with subject matter experts in signature characterization, sensor phenomenology, and threat modeling, and you will work across multiple technical domains including physics-based modeling, sensing systems, and algorithm development. The Huntsville, AL location puts you in the heart of the missile defense community, with direct access to government customers and operational stakeholders.