Sr. Communication Sys Engineer, Modeling and Simulation

KGS LLC; El Segundo (CA); On-site; USD 150,000 - 190,000; Full time

Job summary

Amazon Leo is seeking a Modeling and Simulation Systems Engineer for government missions. You will assess Leo capabilities against government use cases and produce analyses supporting contract work.

Responsibilities include system modeling, mission engineering, and orbital mechanics, with emphasis on RF/optical link budgets and resource scheduling. Clear communication for reviews and proposals is essential.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in mechanical, aerospace, manufacturing engineering or equivalent field.
• 8+ years in satellite or network system design, modeling and analysis.
• Strong understanding of orbital mechanics and constellation geometry.
• 8+ years coding experience in MATLAB, C, C++, or Python with standard practices.
• Working knowledge of RF or optical link budgets and impact on capacity/availability.
• Experience with resource scheduling, allocation, or optimization for a comms/satellite system.
• Strong written and verbal communication for customer briefings and reviews.

Responsibilities

• Own system-level modeling, simulation, and analysis for government mission scenarios and constellation designs across coverage, capacity, latency, and availability.
• Perform mission engineering by translating objectives into scenarios and measures of effectiveness.
• Apply orbital mechanics, including orbit geometry, reference frames, revisit and access behavior, and station-keeping considerations.
• Design and evaluate resource scheduling and allocation approaches for contact scheduling and beam assignment under power/thermal/spectrum limits.
• Evaluate multi-disciplinary trades in RF bandwidth and network resource allocation to optimize customer experience vs. cost and spectrum.
• Build and/or use RF and optical link budgets, combining with orbital dynamics to model capacity over time.
• Model inter-satellite geometry and access, including link windows and handover behavior.
• Extend existing simulation code (MATLAB/C++/Python) and create new models for a dynamic network topology.
• Prepare technical content for government customers and program reviews, including analyses and visuals.

Skills

System modeling

MATLAB

C++/Python

Orbital mechanics

RF/link budgets

Communication skills

Education

Bachelor's degree in Engineering

Job description

Amazon Leo is a low Earth orbit satellite constellation providing low-latency, high-speed broadband connectivity to unserved and underserved communities around the world. The mission of Amazon Leo for Government is to leverage Leo and provide high speed, low latency, and secure satellite services to United States and allied government customers. As a Modeling and Simulation Systems Engineer supporting that mission, this role is primarily responsible for assessing and analyzing how both Leo's capabilities and Leo products built for government perform against government use cases, and for producing the analyses that underpin government contract work. You will evaluate system and network performance from the capacity, coverage, latency, and availability point of view to determine how Leo delivers the operational outcome the customer mission needs. It is a unique opportunity to innovate and define groundbreaking wireless technology with few legacy constraints.

Key job responsibilities

• Own system-level modeling, simulation, and analysis for government mission scenarios and constellation designs, across coverage, capacity, latency, and availability, from concept trades through customer deliverables
• Perform mission engineering: translate customer mission objectives into scenarios and measures of effectiveness, develop design reference missions and CONOPS, and model whether the end-to-end system delivers the required operational outcome
• Apply orbital mechanics, including orbit and constellation geometry, reference frames, revisit and access behavior, and station-keeping and conjunction considerations, as the foundation of coverage, access, and contact analyses
• Design and evaluate resource scheduling and allocation approaches, heuristic or solver-based, for contact scheduling, satellite beam assignment, and prioritization under power, thermal, and spectrum constraints
• Evaluate complex multi-disciplinary trades involving RF bandwidth and network resource allocation to customers, optimizing customer experience against cost, power, and spectrum, including constellation design and link selection trades
• Build and/or utilize RF and optical link budgets and combine them with orbital constellation dynamics to model time-varying system capacity, latency, and availability
• Model inter-satellite geometry and access, including link availability windows, contact scheduling, and handover behavior
• Extend existing simulation code and tools, and create new simulation models representative of the target system (primarily MATLAB, also C++ / Python), designing around hardware and software capabilities and constraints to support a dynamic network topology
• Prepare and present technical content for government customers and program reviews, including analysis packages, visualizations, briefings, and proposal material
• Account for self-interference and interference with other space and terrestrial communication systems in coverage and capacity analyses

Security Clearance: This position requires a recent or active US Government TS/SCI security clearance (polygraph preferred) and the ability to maintain it. U.S. citizenship is required.

Basic Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Mechanical Engineering, Aerospace Engineering, Manufacturing Engineering, or an equivalent field
• 8+ years of experience in satellite or network system design, modeling, and analysis
• Strong understanding of orbital mechanics and constellation geometry, including modeling orbits, reference frames, and vector geometry to simulate the time-varying relative geometry of satellites and ground nodes
• 8+ years of experience developing code in MATLAB, C, C++, or Python, including industry-standard coding and regression practices
• Working knowledge of RF or optical link budgets and how link performance drives system capacity and availability
• Experience with resource scheduling, allocation, or optimization for a communications or satellite system (e.g. contact scheduling, link or beam assignment)
• Strong written and verbal communication skills, including preparing and presenting technical content for customers and program reviews

Preferred Qualifications

• Master's or PhD in Aerospace Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Computer Science, Physics, a related discipline, or equivalent experience
• Experience with satellite constellation design and constellation management trades
• RF or communications system design and modeling background, covering link-level analysis, communication theory, OFDM/MIMO, and digital/wireless communication systems
• Experience with optical inter-satellite links and space-to-space access analysis
• Experience with graph theory and network topology analysis
• Familiarity with satellite operations, mission planning, and contact scheduling
• Experience supporting government or national security programs and proposals
• Experience with mission engineering or mission-level analysis, including design reference missions, CONOP