Simulation Manager

The simulation domain owns York's physics simulator and the model of the spacecraft that flight software is tested against. Alongside it, the interface emulators stand in for real avionics interfaces, an API exposes fault interfaces to manipulate models, and a messenger application attaches for reading and logging simulation messages. This team builds new simulation capabilities, proves they are correct, and authors the mission scenarios that exercise them. When a regression test passes against our simulation, the flight software team needs to be able to trust that the spacecraft would behave the same way in orbit. In this role you will own our simulation tools products, not just as codebases. That means a real roadmap and release cadence, versioned models and documented interfaces, and clear commitments to the teams that depend on your simulations. You will keep the overall vision of the simulation domain organized and aligned with the requirements of internal and external stakeholders, assuring that quality work gets done in a timely manner. You will foster the growth of all simulation products as well as the engineers on your team building and maintaining them. Responsibilities Manage a team of 8-12 engineers with strong leadership skills, including tasking, technical direction, career growth, and performance Set priorities across the three simulation products, working through a designated engineering lead for each, and grow that structure as the group scales Own the simulation product roadmaps, release cadences, and versioning strategies Communicate status, risks, and trade-offs clearly to SIT leadership and internal stakeholders Interact with stakeholders and customers to gather feedback and requirements for feature requests and bugfixes Implement and improve software development, testing, and deployment practices that meet division and department standards for software Ensure quality of product documentation, user guides, training, and model validation records Manage and monitor releases and ensure products are stable for deployment Required Qualifications Bachelor's degree or greater in Aerospace Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Physics, Computer Science, or related field 8+ years of experience in software engineering or a related field 3+ years of experience leading or mentoring engineers, including tasking and technical direction Demonstrated development experience in both Python and C++, including performance-sensitive code Working knowledge of physics-based modeling, numerical methods, or control systems Experience leading others in software development, whether as a manager, technical lead, or both Experience designing, building, deploying and operating software applications in a production environment Experience with software product release processes Strong communication skills and the ability to set priorities across multiple concurrent products and stakeholders Ability to communicate technical tradeoffs, priorities, and progress clearly to both engineers and leadership Experience with writing test documentation, such as test plans, procedures, reports, and defect records Capable of managing multiple tasks while delivering according to program milestones and release commitments Willingness to work full-time in our Austin, TX office; this position does not support remote or hybrid work. Preferred Qualifications Experience with both product and people management, including owning a roadmap and release cadence Background in orbital mechanics, attitude dynamics, or GN&C Experience emulating hardware interfaces or spacecraft bus protocols Experience validating simulation models against test or flight data Experience designing and versioning APIs consumed by other teams Familiarity with spacecraft flight software and avionics architectures Experience with real-time or discrete-event simulation frameworks Experience with Docker and containerization Experience with Software-in-the-Loop (SITL) and/or Hardware-in-the-Loop (HITL) test systems Experience in end-to-end, system-level automated testing Experience with agentic or AI-assisted software development workflows Ability to interface with and handle flight hardware Familiarity with the space domain and satellite operations Networking concepts like UDP/TCP Active Top Secret security clearance or ability to obtain