Software Lead Engineer - Space Simulation (Space Domain)

We are building a high-fidelity software platform for space. The system spans a high-performance physics simulation engine, a scientific data pipeline, a REST and event-streaming backend, and a native desktop client with 3D rendering. This is not an architecture-only role. The Principal Software Engineer is the final technical authority and is expected to be hands-on across all layers — writing simulation code, designing data interfaces, making HPC infrastructure decisions, and being the person who can sit down, open an editor, and solve the hard problem anywhere in the system. You will own the architecture, make and document the decisions that stick, and be directly accountable for correct implementation across the team. What You Will Actually Do Own the end-to-end software architecture and be the final arbiter of all design decisions across every layer Write and review production-quality numerical simulation code in a compiled systems language Design and implement the data access layer that sits between HPC job output and the application backend — handling large binary scientific datasets, incremental writes, and on-the-fly computation at query time Define and enforce interface contracts between the simulation core, the data layer, the API backend, and the desktop client Design the HPC job lifecycle — submission, monitoring, interactive and batch execution modes, command channels, and event streaming to connected clients Build and maintain the application backend including real-time event fan-out, role-based access control, and report generation Make technology selection decisions with explicit written rationale that survives team turnover Write detailed design documents that junior engineers implement from — unambiguous, complete, and correct Mentor engineers across the stack; conduct reviews with the depth of someone who wrote the code themselves Requirements Orbital Mechanics and Astrodynamics Solid working knowledge of analytical orbit propagation — not just calling a library, but understanding what it computes, its accuracy envelope, and where it breaks down Hands-on experience with numerical orbit propagation using adaptive step integrators, with full perturbation models: atmospheric drag, higher-order gravity, solar radiation pressure, third-body effects Familiarity with standard orbit element formats, epoch handling, and the practical limits of catalogue-quality data Working knowledge of coordinate frame transforms and access to authoritative ephemeris sources Understanding of close-approach geometry and conjunction screening concepts Familiarity with empirical upper atmosphere models and their sensitivity to solar activity inputs High-Performance Simulation Core (Compiled Language) Strong, recent hands-on experience in a compiled systems language (C++ preferred) writing numerically intensive code that must be correct first and performant second Shared-memory parallelism: threading models, race condition…