LodeStar Verified

FinTech; Mortgage Technology; SaaS

Software Engineer - Simulations (III)

Name: RiseMe
Availability: InStock

Los Angeles, CAOnsiteFull Time$136,000–$200,000 /yrPosted 2 months ago

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Required skills

C++
Python
ROS 2
Unreal Engine
Docker
Linux
multithreading
synchronization primitives
race conditions
software-in-the-loop

Nice to have

orbital mechanics
Basilisk
physics engines
rigid-body dynamics
electro-optical sensors
LIDAR

Role summary

Lodestar is seeking Software Engineers to build and enhance their MITHRIL simulation environment, crucial for developing and validating autonomous capabilities for space assets. Responsibilities include creating high-fidelity sensor and environment models in Unreal Engine, establishing software- and hardware-in-the-loop test benches, and designing distributed services for scalable and reproducible scenario execution. The role involves close collaboration with various engineering teams to define simulation requirements and fidelity. Lodestar fosters an "extreme ownership" engineering culture. Hiring is for multiple levels (I, II, III) with varying experience requirements.

About Lodestar

Lodestar's mission is to develop the first "Protect and Defend" capability for high-value space assets in orbit. Our flagship product MITHRIL is the critical hardware & software necessary to augment any off-the-shelf spacecraft with the ability to autonomously detect, characterise, and reversibly neutralise orbital threats. By building on the proven space heritage of our best-in-class satellite-bus partners and fully integrating MITHRIL as a single platform, we deliver a fully autonomous end-to-end protection spacecraft service.

About the Job

At Lodestar, as a Simulations Software Engineer, you'll build the environment in which MITHRIL is developed, tested and proven. Every autonomy behaviour we fly is validated in simulation first, which makes the simulator one of the highest-leverage pieces of software in the company: if it isn't faithful, nothing downstream can be trusted.

You'll develop high-fidelity sensor and environment models in Unreal Engine, stand up the software- and hardware-in-the-loop benches that our flight software runs against, and design the distributed services that let scenarios run reproducibly across machines and in CI. You'll work directly with the perception, prediction, decision, and missions teams to decide what needs simulating, at what fidelity, and why.

We proudly have an "extreme ownership" oriented engineering culture.

What You’ll Do

Build and extend the mission simulation environment that Lodestar's autonomy stack is developed and validated against

Develop high-fidelity sensor and environment models - electro-optical cameras, orbital lighting and illumination

Build software-in-the-loop and hardware-in-the-loop test benches so that flight software can be trialed against realistic simulated missions

Design distributed simulation services to run mission scenarios at scale

Own the internal simulation tooling, telemetry, and regression frameworks

Basic Qualifications

We are hiring this role at mid-senior level. All levels require a Bachelor's or Master's degree in Computer Science, Aerospace, Robotics, Mechanical or Electrical Engineering, a related field, or equivalent experience.

6+ years of industry experience, including end-to-end ownership of a simulation stack or a major simulation subsystem

Track record architecting simulation infrastructure - deciding what to model at what fidelity, and defending those trade-offs to engineering stakeholders

Depth in real-time distributed system design: determinism, time synchronisation, clock management, and reproducibility across nodes

Experience standing up HIL benches or SIL pipelines from scratch, including CI integration and automated regression testing

Experience mentoring engineers and setting technical direction across team boundaries

Comfortable deriving requirements from first principles

Preferred Skills & Experience

Familiarity with orbital mechanics and Basilisk

Experience with physics engines and rigid-body dynamics

Sensor modelling experience across electro-optical, LIDAR, RADAR, or RF sensors

Experience with GPU rendering pipelines or CUDA for accelerated simulation and synthetic data generation

Exposure to robotics or space simulation frameworks such as Gazebo, Isaac Sim, Basilisk, or 42

Experience with distributed transports (DDS, Zenoh, gRPC) and time-synchronisation protocols (PTP, NTP)

Experience with Linux, Git, and CI/CD pipelines

Comfortable with containerisation and orchestration tools such as Docker and Kubernetes

Strong understanding of networking and communication protocols for distributed autonomy systems

Candidates should have strong expertise in any or all orbital dynamic simulation, 3D game engines, or distributed simulation architecture (ROS2).

ITAR Requirements

To conform to U.S. Government space technology export regulations, including the International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR) you must be a U.S. citizen, lawful permanent resident of the U.S., protected individual as defined by 8 U.S.C. 1324b(a)(3), or eligible to obtain the required authorizations from the U.S. Department of State. Learn more about the ITAR here.

Compensation & Benefits

Our full band structure for this role:

(P3) Career: $136,000 - $200,000 / year

(P4) Senior: $175,000 - $250,000 / year

Meaningful equity incentives as part of our employee option pool

Flexible PTO with generous paid vacation, holidays, and sick leave

Comprehensive medical, dental & vision coverage

401(k) retirement plan with company match

Los Angeles

Additional Information

Compensation bands are determined by role, level, location, and alignment with market data. Individual level and base pay is determined on a case-by-case basis and may vary based on job-related skills, education, experience, technical capabilities and internal equity. In addition to base salary, for full-time hires, you may also be eligible for long-term incentives, in the form of stock options , and access to medical, vision and dental coverage, as well as access to a 401(k) retirement plan.

Lodestar is an Equal Opportunity Employer; employment with Lodestar is governed on the basis of merit, competence and qualifications and will not be influenced in any manner by race, color, religion, gender, national origin/ethnicity, veteran status, disability status, age, sexual orientation, gender identity, marital status, mental or physical disability or any other legally protected status.

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