Senior Software Engineer, Simulation

Capella Space stands at the forefront of synthetic aperture radar (SAR) satellite technology and signal intelligence. We provide customers in governments, academia, and commercial sectors with reliable information that enables unparalleled understanding of the world. Our mission is centered on delivering timely and reliable Earth imagery, supporting diverse applications in defense & intelligence, disaster response, energy, environmental monitoring and more. Utilizing cutting-edge technology, Capella Space designs, manufactures and operates an advanced constellation of SAR imaging satellites. Our market-leading SAR satellites are complemented by an unmatched data infrastructure and automated ordering and delivery platform for fast, reliable insights where and when customers need it most. 

Recognized for our technological prowess, Capella Space was honored as one of the 10 most innovative companies in Space in 2023 by FASTCOMPANY. Capella Space is an internationally trusted Earth Observation data provider, working closely with the U.S. Space Systems Command, U.S. Space Force, NASA, U.S. Air Force, U.S. Navy, U.S. National Reconnaissance Office, the Canadian Government and more to make unclassified, high-resolution SAR data more accessible.  

What Makes Capella Unique? 

Capella Space is a highly collaborative team environment, providing an opportunity to work with some of the brightest minds in the space industry, though no prior space experience is needed.  We’re looking for people excited about tackling seemingly impossible challenges, learning new skills and concepts, and helping each other achieve success. Our mission and our products are meant to understand the whole world and help everyone in it - regardless of race, creed, or any other distinction. We encourage you to bring your unique perspective to help make us stronger, including applications from those who are traditionally underrepresented in tech. 

About the Role & Team  

The Space Systems & Design Team is a multidisciplinary team within the Engineering department. We are the "Glue" Crew – a multidisciplinary team focused on spacecraft systems engineering and integrated vehicle and mission design. Our functions currently include Systems Engineering, Thermal Engineering, and Harness Design Engineering. 

Capella is seeking a software systems engineer with experience developing and validating simulators or digital twins of ground network, spacecraft, and constellation systems. You will have significant responsibility and autonomy to reverse engineer our ground software, production scheduling pipeline, and spacecraft performance in order to build a reliable, robust, and widely usable simulator of our system of systems. The tools you create and validate will be used to design and analyze cutting edge radar satellites. This role will primarily involve reading, evaluating, and writing code, but will require occasional design of hardware tests to validate the software, as well as modeling and design of spacecraft and constellation systems. You will work closely with our Ground Software, Customer Engagement, and Space Systems teams to develop software solutions that accurately simulate or emulate our complex system of systems. This is an exciting opportunity to contribute to the advancement of space technology and play a key role in the success of Capella Space. 

Qualifications 

• Bachelor's or master’s degree in mathematics, Computer Science, Engineering, Physics, Statistics, or a related field. 
• Strong proficiency with Python with an emphasis on clean and reusable code. 
• Experience developing and maintaining physics-based simulation tools or digital twins of complex systems. 
• Ability to translate mission- or system-level requirements into simulation architectures to support system design, trade studies, and performance assessment. 
• Experience designing or leading test campaigns to generate validation datasets for simulation tools. 
• Excellent problem-solving and analytical skills 
• Excellent communication and collaboration skills 
• Ability and eagerness to learn new systems quickly and apply new skills to your work in an efficient manner 
• Experience with version control systems (e.g., Git, gitlab, and CI/CD pipelines) 

Nice-to-Have 

• Ability to design, con