Principal Application Engineer- Missile Defense

Synopsys; Mountain View (CA); On-site; USD 160,000 - 230,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Annual bonus

Equity

Job summary

Synopsys is seeking experienced candidates to build high-fidelity simulations for air and missile defense, translating complex physics into actionable models. You will cover threat trajectories, sensor signatures, and sensor architectures to support kill chain analysis from detection to engagement.

You will collaborate with subject matter experts, deliver technical briefings, and contribute to a credible simulation platform used with government customers.

Qualifications

• Minimum 10+ years of professional experience (or 8+ with MS) in air and missile defense contexts.
• US citizenship with an active DoD TS/SCI clearance.
• Deep experience in sensor phenomenology and signature modeling (RF/IR) across flight phases.
• Proficiency in MATLAB or Python for modeling, simulations, and DoD analysis frameworks.
• Experience with radar sensing environments and radar band impacts on detection/characterization.
• Familiarity with STK and AFSIM is a strong plus.

Responsibilities

• Build high-fidelity simulation environments for air and missile defense systems, modeling threat trajectories, staging events, and multi-modal signatures across RF, IR, and other sensor spectra.
• Model radar phenomenology and sensor architectures for detection, tracking, and discrimination.
• Develop signature simulation capabilities that capture missile launch dynamics and time-varying observables.
• Design synthetic training datasets for AI/ML systems used in sensor fusion and battle management.
• Integrate threat models and sensor simulations into larger frameworks using STK/AFSIM.

Skills

MATLAB

Python

Sensor modeling

TS/SCI clearance

Education

BS in Engineering/Physics/CS

MS in Engineering/Physics/CS

Tools

STK

AFSIM

Job description

***Currently, we are searching for experienced candidates in the Colorado Springs, CO area or Exton, PA area.***We AreSynopsys 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 AreYou have spent years building simulation environments that model what actually happens when a missile launches, not what should happen in theory. You understand that the difference between a useful threat model and an academic exercise is whether it accounts for the messy reality of radar cross-sections changing during staging events, IR signatures evolving through flight phases, and sensors trying to make sense of it all in real time. You are comfortable translating a customer's operational problem into a simulation architecture that can answer it. When someone asks whether a new sensor configuration can detect a specific threat class, you know which physics matter, which can be approximated, and how to build the model that gives them a real answer. You have worked with actual radar data, not just textbook equations, and you know what X-band sees differently than S-band because you have debugged the models that got it wrong. You think in kill chains. Detection, tracking, discrimination, engagement decisions, the whole sequence matters, and you build simulations that respect those dependencies. You also know that the synthetic data you generate today will train the ML models that make those decisions tomorrow, so you care deeply about fidelity, edge cases, and bias. At Synopsys, you will work with defense customers who need your expertise to make hard decisions about billion-dollar systems. Your models will matter.

What You’ll Be Doing

• Build high-fidelity simulation environments for air and missile defense systems, modeling threat trajectories, staging events, and multi-modal signatures across RF, IR, and other sensor-observable spectra
• Model radar phenomenology and sensor architectures, representing how different radar bands and configurations observe and interpret target behavior during detection, tracking, and discrimination
• Develop signature simulation capabilities that capture realistic missile launch dynamics, plume characteristics, and time-varying observables that drive sensor performance
• Design and generate synthetic training datasets for AI/ML systems used in sensor fusion, target discrimination, and battle management, ensuring both target-present and target-absent scenarios to reduce algorithmic bias
• Integrate threat models and sensor simulations into larger operational frameworks using tools like STK and AFSIM, supporting kill chain analysis from detection through engagement
• Collaborate with subject matter experts in signature characterization, sensor physics, and threat modeling to ensure simulation accuracy and technical credibility with government customers
• Deliver technical briefings and documentation to stakeholders ranging from engineering teams to program leadership, translating complex modeling decisions into clear operational insights

What You’ll Need

• BS in Engineering, Physics, Computer Science, or related field with 10+ years of professional experience, or MS with 8+ years
• US citizen with an active DoD TS/SCI clearance
• Deep experience in air and missile defense systems, including understanding of sensor architectures, kill chain operations, and battle management concepts
• Strong background in sensor phenomenology and signature modeling, particularly RF and IR signatures across missile flight phases
• Proficiency in MATLAB or Python for building models, scripting simulations, and interfacing with DoD analysis frameworks
• Experience with radar sensing environments and understanding of how radar bands affect target detection and characterization
• Familiarity with Systems Tool Kit (STK) and Advanced Framework for Simulation, Integration and Modeling (AFSIM) is a strong plus

Who You Are

• You can sit in a customer meeting, hear a vague requirement about "better discrimination," and walk out with a modeling plan that addresses the actual physics problem underneath
• You have debugged enough radar models to know when a simulation result looks wrong, and you dig into the phenomenology until you find out why
• You are comfortable presenting technical trade-offs to senior government stakeholders without oversimplifying the physics or losing them in the math
• You manage multiple modeling efforts simultaneously, keeping track of which customer needs trajectory fidelity, which needs signature accuracy, and which needs both
• You think about how the data you generate today will be used six months from now to train an ML model, and you build in the edge cases and variability that make those models actually work
• You can work across domains, talking sensor physics with one team, machine learning data prep with another, and battle management logic with a third, without losing the thread of what you are building

The Team You’ll Be Part Of

Your recruiter will share more about the team structure and mission during the interview process.#LI-CM1

At Synopsys, we want talented people of every background to feel valued and supported to do their best work. Synopsys considers all applicants for employment without regard to race, color, religion, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, age, military veteran status, or disability.

In addition to the base salary, this role may be eligible for an annual bonus, equity, and other discretionary bonuses. Synopsys offers comprehensive health, wellness, and financial benefits as part of a competitive total rewards package. The actual compensation offered will be based on a number of job-related factors, including location, skills, experience, and education. Your recruiter can share more specific details on the total rewards package upon request. The base salary range for this role is across the U.S.