Head of Software Tools

Turion Space • Irvine, CA

2d • $200,000 - $225,000 • Onsite

About The Position

Turion is developing the critical infrastructure of the space economy by building vertically integrated hardware and software: DROID, our line of space vehicles, and Starfire, our software suite covering simulation, modeling, planning, and operations. Turion is scaling toward production of tens of vehicles per month while running several vehicle development efforts in parallel. The Head of Vehicle Development, Software owns the software layer of how we develop vehicles: the tools, automation, AI, and data infrastructure that let a lean team design, analyze, build, and verify spacecraft at production rate. This role will turn one-off engineering analyses into push-button pipelines, wire our design and systems processes into a connected digital thread, and give every responsible engineer an unfair advantage. This is a player-coach role where you will set the vision and recruit a small, elite team, and you will ship code yourself from day one.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree in computer science, engineering, or a related technical field.
• 8+ years of software engineering experience, including building internal tools, automation, or infrastructure for hardware engineering organizations such as aerospace, defense, or automotive.
• Expert-level Python, working fluency in at least one systems language such as C++, and strong software architecture fundamentals.
• Hands-on experience automating commercial CAD, CAE, or ECAD tools through their APIs and scripting interfaces.
• Enough depth in at least one engineering domain, such as thermal, structures and dynamics, orbital mechanics, or electronics design, to partner credibly with analysts and design engineers. You understand what the tools are computing, not just how to script them.
• Experience with modern data and cloud infrastructure including databases and data modeling, services and APIs, CI/CD, and compute heavy workloads.
• Demonstrated technical leadership through architecture ownership, mentoring, or direct management, and the ability to recruit strong engineers.

Nice To Haves

• Experience at a spacecraft, launch, defense, or automotive company that scaled production rate
• Familiarity with PLM and requirements systems such as Teamcenter, Windchill, Duro, Jama, or DOORS
• Experience with HPC or cloud batch compute for simulation
• Applied AI or ML for engineering workflows.

Responsibilities

• Own the roadmap. Define and drive the strategy for vehicle development software across analysis automation, design automation, systems and requirements tooling, applied AI, engineering data infrastructure, and compute.
• Build the team. Recruit, lead, and grow the software engineers on this team, set the technical bar, and stay hands-on in architecture and code.
• Automate analysis. Drive the conversion of manual thermal, structural, vibration, shock, and environments analyses into parameterized, repeatable pipelines with automated model generation, batch solves, margin tracking, and generated reports.
• Automate design and release. Own CAD, ECAD, PDM/PLM, BOM, and engineering release automation, plus clean hand-offs to manufacturing and supply chain.
• Systemize systems engineering. Stand up requirements, verification, budget, and trade study tooling so systems engineering runs on live data rather than static documents.
• Connect the digital thread. Create a common data layer linking requirements, CAD and ECAD, analysis models, test results, and as-built vehicle configurations, giving one source of truth from concept through on-orbit operations.
• Build the compute layer. Stand up the cloud and HPC infrastructure that simulation, data, and AI workloads run on, and keep cost per solve falling.
• Prove the leverage. Partner with responsible engineers in every discipline to find the highest value automation targets, drive adoption, and measure and publish cycle time and quality wins.

Benefits

• Company stock
• Equity in Turion Space
• Comprehensive medical, dental, and vision coverage for employees and their dependents.
• 401(k) plan with a 3% Employer Direct Contribution
• Generous vacation days, personal days, sick days, and holidays
• Paid parental leave following the birth of a newborn or adoption.
• No-cost Employee Assistance Program (EAP) to support you and your household’s emotional health and wellbeing.
• Opportunities for ongoing internal training, workshops, and courses to advance your skills and career growth.
• Regular social events, team outings, and company-sponsored activities to foster a positive work environment.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Senior