Engineering Manager - UAS Simulation Platform Leader

Firestorm; San Diego (CA); On-site; USD 175,000 - 220,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Medical, dental, vision

401(k) plan

Equity grants

Unlimited PTO

Holiday calendar

Parental leave

Lifestyle Spending Account

FSA/HSA

Job summary

Firestorm is seeking an Engineering Manager to lead the Simulation team and create a reusable UAS simulation platform. You will own and grow simulation capabilities used for development, testing, training, and demonstrations across Firestorm aircraft.

You will manage a team of engineers, integrate flight software, models, sensors, and hardware interfaces, and scale the infrastructure for local, CI, and distributed runs in a fast-paced defense tech environment.

Qualifications

• 8+ years of software, simulation, robotics, or related engineering experience.
• 3+ years leading software engineering teams.
• U.S. person required due to ITAR regulations.
• Hands-on experience building or integrating simulation systems for aircraft, UAS, robotics, or other complex physical systems.
• Experience with Gazebo, JSBSim, AirSim, FlightGear, or similar simulation frameworks.
• Strong C++ and Python or similar software engineering experience.
• Experience with SIL, HIL, or other integrated simulation environments.
• Experience integrating flight software, vehicle models, sensors, actuators, or hardware interfaces into simulation.
• Strong build, packaging, deployment, and distribution of applications across multiple OS.
• Demonstrated ability to debug complex problems across simulation, software, networking, and hardware boundaries.

Responsibilities

• Lead the Simulation team— Own the team responsible for aircraft simulation infrastructure, tools, models, and integrations.
• Build the simulation platform— Develop a reusable simulation capability across aircraft, payloads, sensors, propulsion systems, and compute configurations.
• Enable software development and test— Provide interactive and headless environments used by aircraft software teams and automated SIL/HIL test systems.
• Build scenario orchestration— Develop tools for defining, configuring, executing, and replaying aircraft and mission scenarios.
• Scale simulation execution— Build infrastructure for repeatable local, CI, and distributed simulation runs.
• Integrate the aircraft stack— Connect flight software, autonomy, vehicle models, sensors, actuators, communications, and other aircraft systems into simulation.
• Support training and demonstrations— Build simulation capabilities that can be used for operator training, mission development, and customer demonstrations.
• Grow the team— Hire and develop engineers with strong simulation, software, and UAS fundamentals.

Skills

Leadership

C++ & Python

Simulation experience

Problem-solving

Tools

Gazebo

JSBSim

AirSim

FlightGear

SIL/HIL

Python

C++

Job description

Firestorm is seeking an Engineering Manager to lead the Simulation team and create a reusable UAS simulation platform. You will own and grow simulation capabilities used for development, testing, training, and demonstrations across Firestorm aircraft.

You will manage a team of engineers, integrate flight software, models, sensors, and hardware interfaces, and scale the infrastructure for local, CI, and distributed runs in a fast-paced defense tech environment.