SlipstreamJobs tracks this role from the company's public career site. Apply directly on the employer's site.
Code Metal is building an automated software engineering platform that uses formal methods and AI to produce provably correct code. The Modeling & Simulation team is developing a next-generation wargaming and decision-support platform for the Department of War to enable multi-billion-dollar force-design decisions through extensible, mission- and campaign-level simulations.
In this Principal Simulation Engineer role, you will lead the design and implementation of mission- and campaign-level simulation capabilities in modern C++ and Python. You'll own core framework functionality including event scheduling, simulation time, state transitions, platform abstractions, scenario execution, data collection, and deterministic replay. Your responsibilities span developing models for platforms, sensors, weapons, communications, electronic warfare, jamming, command and control, logistics, and environmental effects.
Key responsibilities include:
- Design and implement event-driven, discrete-event, agent-based, and constructive simulation frameworks
- Extend AFSIM and comparable simulation environments through C++ plugins, framework services, and SDK integrations
- Translate operational concepts and system specifications into maintainable software models with explicit assumptions
- Modernize legacy campaign and mission-analysis tools and integrate them into coherent simulation architecture
- Build scenario-generation, Monte Carlo, sensitivity-analysis, and evaluation workflows
- Scale simulations across developer workstations, on-premises infrastructure, and cloud compute while preserving reproducibility
- Establish verification and validation practices, reference scenarios, and regression suites
- Work directly with government, Air Force, and DoD stakeholders to understand acquisition questions
- Lead design and code reviews, mentor teammates, and improve architecture, documentation, testing, and release practices
- Collaborate across physics, backend, geospatial, AI, and product teams to integrate the simulation kernel into a larger interactive platform
At the Principal level, you will set the quality and correctness bar across the department, provide architectural guidance, invent paradigms that solve Code Metal-specific domain problems, contribute to the company's technical roadmap, and mentor mid-level and senior staff at scale.
REQUIREMENTS:
- 10+ years of professional software-development experience building simulation, autonomy, robotics, game-engine, digital-twin, or similarly complex systems
- Strong production experience in modern C++, with proficiency in Python for tooling, orchestration, analysis, or automation
- Hands-on experience developing or extending a simulation framework (not only configuring or analyzing)
- Experience with event-driven, discrete-event, agent-based, constructive, or distributed simulation architectures
- Demonstrated ability to represent complex real-world entities, interactions, rules, and edge cases as clear software abstractions
- Experience building plugins, SDKs, reusable model interfaces, framework services, or similar extension mechanisms
- Strong understanding of software architecture, data structures, algorithms, APIs, testing, debugging, and performance engineering
- Experience making substantial changes within large existing codebases while maintaining ongoing delivery
- Experience with model verification, validation, calibration, or regression testing
- Ability to turn ambiguous operational or technical requirements into executable engineering plans
- Strong written and verbal communication skills, including ability to document model assumptions, limitations, interfaces, and intended use
- Bachelor's degree or equivalent experience in computer science, engineering, applied mathematics, operations research, physics, or related discipline
- Active Secret clearance or eligibility to obtain one
STRONGLY PREFERRED:
- Direct experience developing AFSIM plugins, framework extensions, event infrastructure, or custom platform types
- Experience with behavior trees, finite state machines, and planning languages (e.g., PDDL) in mission planning and behavior modeling
- Experience supporting Air Force, Space Force, joint, or broader DoD acquisition and mission-analysis programs
- Experience developing models for sensors, weapons, electronic warfare, jamming, communications, logistics, or command and control
- Experience translating or modernizing large legacy modeling or campaign-analysis systems into C++
- Experience designing a simulation framework, event stack, plugin architecture, or campaign system from the ground up
- Familiarity with HLA, DIS, OneSAF, JSAF, NGTS, STK, or other constructive and distributed simulation environments
- Experience spanning both operational and constructive simulation
- Active TS/SCI clearance
