Space Operations Planning and Simulation Engineer

Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory•Laurel, MD

13h•Onsite

About The Position

Join our team at APL as a Space Operations Planning and Simulation Engineer to enhance a mature, flight-proven software framework used for autonomous science observation planning, scheduling, and spacecraft commanding. You will develop new capabilities in high-fidelity simulation, opportunity detection, conflict resolution, command sequence generation, and performance optimization. This role offers the chance to directly impact national security and scientific space missions by making operations faster, smarter, and more scalable. This role emphasizes modern DevSecOps practices, cloud-native architectures, and secure development/deployment in classified environments.

Requirements

Hold a Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, Aerospace Engineering, Physics, or a related field.
Have strong programming experience in Java (or similar object-oriented languages) for building complex, modular software systems.
Possess 4+ years of experience developing software for simulations, modeling, or analysis tools — preferably in aerospace, space operations, or scientific computing domains.
Have a solid understanding of orbital mechanics, spacecraft operations, or related physical systems.
Have demonstrated ability to design, implement, test, and document new software features or modules.
Possess strong problem-solving skills with the ability to work both independently and collaboratively in a small, high-impact team.
Have excellent written and verbal communication skills, including the ability to prepare technical presentations for internal teams and external sponsors.
Are able to obtain a TS/SCI+poly level security clearance. If selected, you will be subject to a government security clearance investigation and must meet the requirements for access to classified information. Eligibility requirements include U.S. citizenship.

Nice To Haves

Have direct experience with spacecraft mission planning, scheduling, commanding, or autonomous operations software.
Have a background in constraint-based scheduling, opportunity detection algorithms, or optimization techniques.
Have demonstrated experience building and maintaining CI/CD pipelines (GitLab CI, GitHub Actions, or Jenkins) including build, test, security scanning, and deployment stages.
Possess demonstrated proficiency with modern software best practices.

Responsibilities

Design and implement new modules for autonomous planning, scheduling, and conflict resolution
Extend simulation capabilities for orbital mechanics, sensor observations, and end-to-end kill chains / engagement scenarios
Develop algorithms for opportunity detection, resource optimization, and command sequence generation
Integrate with MATLAB, Linux/HPC environments, and existing modeling tools
Collaborate with mission analysts, systems engineers, and sponsors to translate operational needs into robust software solutions
Document, test, and present new capabilities to internal teams and external stakeholders