2024 Vehicle Modeling and Simulation Engineer

The Aerospace Corporation is the trusted partner to the nation’s space programs, solving the hardest problems and providing unmatched technical expertise. As the operator of a federally funded research and development center (FFRDC), we are broadly engaged across all aspects of space— delivering innovative solutions that span satellite, launch, ground, and cyber systems for defense, civil and commercial customers. When you join our team, you’ll be part of a special collection of problem solvers, thought leaders, and innovators. Join us and take your place in space.

At Aerospace, we are committed to providing an inclusive and diverse workplace for all employees to share in our common passion and aspiration – to carry out a mission much bigger than ourselves.

The Vehicle Systems Division (VSD) sits at the center of the ideas and data behind current and future systems supplying innovative research and development; technical evaluations during the acquisition process; conceptual and detailed design; assembly, integration, and test; and operational support. Comprised primarily of highly-trained mechanical and aerospace engineers, VSD provides national expertise in the areas of vehicle engineering; guidance, navigation, and controls; robotics; electro-mechanical devices; embedded systems; fluid mechanics; propulsion; thermal control; orbital mechanics; mechanisms; structures; structural dynamics; and dynamic environments.

The Vehicle Engineering Department (VED) is part of VSD, the premier satellite and launch vehicle technical organization within the Aerospace Corporation. We are seeking a software engineer who has outstanding technical and programming skills, an understanding of physics/physical hardware systems, is inquisitive and motivated to learn, and has uncompromising integrity and objectivity The Vehicle Modeling and Analysis Section within VED is responsible for implementing multi-disciplinary analytical models and developing software tools required to execute the desired analyses with respect to satellite, ground, and launch vehicle development and operations. VMAS is also responsible for hardware-in-the-loop / software-in-the-loop testing within the group’s Vehicle Autonomy Laboratory, bringing modeling and simulation capabilities to bear on autonomy Verification and Validation activities.

This position will be a hybrid work model and offer partially remote with some onsite work required in Chantilly, Va.

What You’ll Be Doing

• Help develop advanced, high-performance, production-quality modeling and simulation (M&S) software to help support challenging problems posed by Aerospace’s customers.
• Develop and modify algorithms to enhance simulation capabilities to support studies for future satellite systems and architectures and interface with flight and flight-like satellite hardware, software, and system emulators to enable modular spacecraft HIL/SIL testing.
• Help port scientific, engineering, and physics-based modeling code, calculations, and algorithms from technical documents, Matlab, Python, and Excel to Java based software and interface legacy C, C++, and Fortran codes together into tool chains or distributed simulation frameworks.
• Help maintain and enhance Java-based distributed simulation frameworks with multi-threaded architectures and develop new distributed simulation federates, pre- and post-simulation data processing, and visualization tools.
• Support and/or perform analysis using software developed within VMAS to answer questions about future satellite systems and architectures.
• Participate and collaborate with other developers in full software development life cycle activities including design, implementation, and maintenance activities and assist in the creation of technical documentation and user guides.
• Participate in cross-disciplinary teams to solve complex and challenging problems and may need to help guide, advise, instruct, and mentor staff with expertise in non-software fields and little to no software engineering background.

What Corporate Skills You’ll Bring

• Strong written and oral communication skills
• Must work well in a team environment
• Possess organizational, time management and project management skills
• Demonstrate flexibility and ability to adapt to changing organizational need
• Interpersonal skills to coordinate efforts and work with other internal and external organizations

What You Need to be Successful

Minimum Requirements:

• Bachelor’s degree from an accredited college/university program in Computer Science, Software Engineering, Physics, Aerospace Engineering or related STEM discipline   (pursuing or conferred within last 12 months) 
• 0-1 year of industry work experience  
• Proficiency in Java with Object-Oriented design and d