Askari Defense · 3 days ago
Flight Dynamics & Simulation Engineer
Atlanta, GA
Full-time
Hybrid
Senior LevelAskari Defense is focused on developing high-performance autonomous systems for national security. The Flight Dynamics & Simulation Engineer will be responsible for creating high-fidelity simulations that model and analyze the performance of aerial vehicles, enabling rapid iteration on autonomy technology.
Defense & Space
Responsibilities
You own large portions of our autonomous systems from concept through fielding
You are responsible for creating the high-fidelity environment where our system's behavior is modeled, understood, and perfected
You will evaluate how our vehicles’ real-world performance aligns with (or deviates from) classical rotorcraft and rocket theory, capturing these complex non-linear trends and implementing them directly into our core physics engines
You will exert total control over the design, evolution, and maintenance of a high-fidelity simulation platform that serves as our primary engineering forge
By perfecting these tools, you will enable us to rapidly iterate on our autonomy stack and fundamentally rewrite the R&D cost structure traditionally associated with developing kinetic defense technologies, replacing expensive, slow-motion physical testing cycles with high-velocity, high-fidelity digital validation
Collaborate closely with flight-test teams to define maneuvers for high-rate data collection, and lead the development of system-identification pipelines to derive high-fidelity dynamic models directly from flight data
Architect and maintain the core dynamics simulation library, developing platform-agnostic, six-degree-of-freedom nonlinear models integrated into both lightweight dynamics-only simulations and high-fidelity SITL/HITL environments
Investigate and implement advanced modeling approaches, including neural-network-based methods, to capture complex aerodynamic effects and transition behavior in highly nonlinear regimes
Qualification
Required
Master's or PhD in Aerospace, Robotics, Mechanical Engineering, Computer Science, or a related technical field
Extensive experience in a high-intensity environment with ownership of models from concept through flight validation
Hands-on experience in modeling and simulation of high-speed or aerodynamically unstable systems; experience with control system algorithms is a strong plus
Willingness and ability to travel as required to support rigorous flight testing
Deep mastery of rigid-body dynamics, reference-frame transformations, and the flight dynamics of complex, aerodynamically unstable aerial vehicles
Experience with Gazebo and bespoke, in-house simulation platforms, including digital-twin replication and high-fidelity physics modeling
Experience with high-speed multirotor and rocket systems, including nonlinear dynamics and transition maneuvers
High proficiency in C++ and Python, with experience in numerical methods (Eigen, NumPy, SciPy) and modern software engineering practices (CI/CD, unit testing)
Proven experience deriving and fitting physics-based models from experimental data, including frequency-domain analysis
Company
Askari Defense
Founded in 2024
2-10 employees
Funding
Current Stage
Early StageCompany data provided by crunchbase