Spacecraft Closed-Loop Simulation Engineer

Job Summary

LASP is looking for a Simulation Engineer to join the spacecraft simulator team for a deep space mission that will tour the inner solar system and explore the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter. Launch is expected in early 2028.

You will develop behavioral hardware models and build the software-only and hardware-in-the-loop (HIL) test environments that the flight software, command and data handling, fault protection, assembly/integration and test (AIT), and mission operations teams rely on to validate spacecraft behavior.

This is a hands-on role that spans the full simulator stack: embedded and Ground Support Equipment (EGSE) driver work, the behavioral models themselves, and the infrastructure and pipelines that deliver them. You will write C++ models and Python orchestration at your desk, then deploy and test against EGSE hardware in the lab. You will also help expand the institution’s simulation capability over time.

CU is an Equal Opportunity Employer and complies with all applicable federal, state, and local laws governing nondiscrimination in employment. We are committed to creating a workplace where all individuals are treated with respect and dignity, and we encourage individuals from all backgrounds to apply, including protected veterans and individuals with disabilities.

The Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics ( LASP ) is one of the largest research institutes of CU Boulder, the #1 public university recipient of NASA research grants, and one of America’s leading aerospace universities. With a focus on solar, stellar, space plasma, atmospheric, and planetary sciences, LASP employs both experimental and theoretical approaches to answer key science questions. Since its inception in 1948, LASP has developed, operated, and analyzed the data from scientific instrumentation for solar science, earth atmospheric, planetary, deep-space, and Earth-orbiting spacecraft missions investigating the Sun, all eight planets, Pluto and beyond.

The progressive development of research capabilities and use of innovative technologies in pursuit of emerging research initiatives ensures a continued leadership role for LASP in today’s growing “new space” era. Since 2013, LASP has secured over $1.75B in grants and contracts.

Thanks to its distinctive combination of scientific and engineering expertise and its ability both to manage long-term collaborations with agencies such as NASA and to respond to faster-moving opportunities with private sponsors, LASP has grown rapidly in the last decade, with expenditures that exceed well over $150M annually, secured through grants, contracts, and other funding vehicles. Some 400 of LASP’s 600-person staff are technical staff and research scientists.

The LASP community includes tenure/tenure-track faculty, approximately 110 student employees, 69 graduate students, and 10 postdocs.

An important element of LASP’s mission is to train the next generation of space scientists and engineers: through wide-ranging research and flight projects, LASP participates actively in the development of the future leaders of space research and is a leader in educating students with highly valued technical and scientific skills. Undergraduate and graduate student participation is integral to LASP’s R&D and operational success.

In this regard, LASP has been both a contributor to and beneficiary of the remarkable growth of the state of Colorado’s space sector.

• Work with subsystem leads and system engineers to develop simulation requirements and architecture.
• Develop and maintain behavioral hardware models for spacecraft subsystem simulators.
• Build and support software-only and hardware-in-the-loop (HIL) simulator environments.
• Implement, verify, and validate simulation products, including test procedures for requirement V&V and unit/integration tests.
• Integrate simulation environments with command-and-telemetry and test data systems.
• Deploy, configure, and test embedded/EGSE systems.
• Build and maintain containerized simulator environments, delivering artifacts through CI/CD pipelines.
• Support functional, performance, and mission-scenario testing for…