Senior Simulation Software Engineer

Senior Simulation Software Engineer at Apera Senior Simulation Software Engineer at Apera in Santa Rosa, California Posted in about 3 hours ago.

Type:

full-time

Job Description:

The Opportunity A venture-backed early-stage startup at the forefront of an emerging autonomous aerospace sector, building autonomous aircraft and the mission autonomy systems that direct them. The company partners with public sector agencies to deploy its technology in safety-critical operational environments. The team is made up of engineers covering perception, mission autonomy, autonomous behaviors, and systems engineering. The culture is highly collaborative with shared sprint planning, but each engineer holds strong autonomy and ownership over their domain. Simulation has historically been a shared, distributed responsibility across the engineering team. The client is now looking for a dedicated owner: a subject matter expert who can take simulation from a single-aircraft setup to a robust, scalable multi-aircraft environment, and deliver an initial package to a state-level customer as part of the federally funded work. The successful candidate will be the sole owner of the simulation domain, but will work cross-functionally with engineers across perception, autonomous behaviors, mission autonomy, and communications. This is a rare opportunity to take technical leadership and design ownership over a significant domain inside a company at the earliest stages of a new industry. Responsibilities Own the simulation stack end-to-end: architecture, development, deployment, and validation. Stand up the simulation environment and harden existing tooling around single-aircraft simulation so an initial package can be deployed to a state-level customer without high support needs from the core team. Scale from single-aircraft to multi-aircraft simulation (2, 3, 4, 5+ aircraft) without requiring excessive server infrastructure. Enhance sensor simulation and integrate it into the broader system. Build interfaces (lightweight UIs, web apps, or configuration files) so customers can configure environmental conditions, aircraft starting positions, mission parameters, etc. Enable independent evaluation of perception, autonomous behavior, and tactical strategy subsystems. Support faster-than-real-time and 24/7 simulation runs to test new tactics and evaluate how changes to intelligence layers and strategies affect mission outcomes under varying environmental conditions. Develop CI/CD infrastructure to run large-scale integrated tests overnight. Build tools to evaluate system performance, failure modes, and degraded conditions. Collaborate with autonomy, perception, and flight software engineers to ensure simulation reflects real-world constraints. Contribute to core flight software (mission autonomy, world model) where helpful. Requirements Experience working with or building simulation environments Modern C++ experience Python for simulation and test tooling Experience building, deploying, and debugging applications on Linux-based systems (Docker Compose, CMake, Conan, gdb/Valgrind) Ability to own a domain end-to-end with minimal guidance Strong communication skills US Person (required for ITAR compliance: no TN, H1B, or non-US persons) Desired 4+ years of relevant experience Background in robotics, aerospace, autonomy, flight simulators, gaming, or automotive Experience with Unreal Engine or comparable game engines / simulation frameworks Experience with distributed, multi-agent, or real-time systems Networking fundamentals: IP/subnet, TCP/UDP, latency, jitter, packet loss Geospatial reference systems (WGS84, ECEF, Local Tangent Plane, NAD83) Hardware-in-the-loop or software-in-the-loop experience Environmental simulation or geospatial systems background