---
title: 'Simulation Engineer - Drone Physical Models Integration at Harmattan AI'
canonical: 'https://feeny.ai/job/simulation-engineer-drone-physical-models-integration-harmattan-ai-paris-pkz80fp9ksje'
type: 'job'
last_seen: '2026-11-09'
---

# Simulation Engineer - Drone Physical Models Integration at Harmattan AI

- **Company:** [Harmattan AI](https://feeny.ai/companies/harmattan-ai)
- **Location:** Paris, France
- **Employment:** full-time
- **Work type:** onsite
- **Posted:** 2026-10-02
- **Last confirmed live:** 2026-11-09
- **Apply:** https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/harmattan-ai/d684f01b-1500-4acb-b2ab-f5831211a50b

## Job description

## About Us

Harmattan AI is a next-generation defense prime building autonomous and scalable defense systems. Following the close of a $200M Series B, valuing the company at $1.4 billion, we are expanding our teams and capabilities to deliver mission-critical systems to allied forces. Our work is guided by clear values: building technologies with real-world impact, pursuing excellence in everything we do, setting ambitious goals, and taking on the hardest technical challenges. We operate in a demanding environment where rigor, ownership, and execution are expected.

## About the Role

As our GNC, ML, Embedded Software, and Validation teams scale, they rely increasingly on simulation to develop and test our autonomous defense systems. The value of that simulation depends directly on how faithfully it reproduces the real behavior of our drones. Joining the Tooling team, you will be responsible for bringing the physical models of our drones into the simulator—including aerodynamics, propulsion, electronics, sensors, and electromechanical systems. Designed by expert domain teams, these models require your expertise to translate user needs, integrate models into the simulator software stack, and validate expected behavior. Because not every use case requires the same level of realism, you will help establish the appropriate fidelity targets across applications. This role offers high ownership and the opportunity to work at the intersection of physics, software engineering, and AI robotics with direct mission impact.

## Responsibilities

- Coordination with Domain Experts: Work with the teams in charge of aerodynamics, propulsion, electronics, sensors, and electromechanical systems to understand their models, their assumptions, and their inputs and outputs, and to agree on how they are delivered to the simulator.
- Model Integration: Integrate these models into the simulator software stack in a clean, performant, and maintainable way, with clear interfaces and configurable parameters.
- Validation: Define and run tests that check the integrated models against the reference data given by the expert teams (flight logs, bench tests, manufacturer data), and report discrepancies back to the model owners.
- User Needs & Fidelity Targets: Work with the simulator users (GNC, Embedded, Validation) to understand their use cases, and translate them into a realism target for each model. Pick the right balance between fidelity, performance, and integration effort, and prioritise the model integration work to match.
- Documentation & Standards: Document the integrated models, their parameters, validity domains, and validation results, and help standardise the model integration and validation process.

Candidate requirements

- Experience: Minimum of 3 years of professional experience in software engineering, simulation, or a related engineering field.
- Physics Understanding: Good understanding of flight dynamics and enough physics background to discuss models with experts in aerodynamics, propulsion, electronics, sensors, and electromechanical systems, and to turn their models into working code.
- Integration & Validation: Experience integrating third-party models or components into a larger software system, and validating them against experimental data with a rigorous approach.
- Technical Proficiency: Comfortable with C++ and Python, with a good knowledge of Linux environments.
- Educational Background: MSc or BSc in Aerospace Engineering, Robotics, Computer Science, Applied Physics, or a similar technical field; equivalent professional experience is equally valued.

Plus (nice to have)

- Experience with drones or robotic systems, ideally with open-source autopilots like PX4 or ArduPilot.
- Hands-on experience with flight testing, test benches, or log analysis.
- French language skills.

Mindset

- Rigor: Empirical and disciplined about validation, grounded in real test data, and skeptical of a result that only exists in simulation.
- Communication: Clear written and verbal communication, comfortable working with several specialized teams, asking the right questions, and sharing validation results with them.

We look forward to hearing how you can help shape the future of autonomous defense systems at Harmattan AI.

## About Harmattan AI

## Company Overview
- **One-liner**: Harmattan AI builds autonomous defense systems—including strike and surveillance drones—using AI-driven autonomy and real-time intelligence for allied forces.
- **Entity Type**: Private (Series B, unicorn status)
- **Headquarters**: Paris, France
- **Founded**: 2024
- **Founders**: Mouad M’Ghari (CEO & Co‑founder)

## Core Business
- **Primary industry**: Defense & autonomous systems
- **Target customers**: B2G – NATO member states, ministries of defence (UK, France, and others)
- **Mission**: Deliver scalable, sovereign AI capabilities to allied forces by building mission‑ready autonomous systems that respond in real time, adapt under pressure, and deliver an edge in contested environments. [harmattan.ai](https://harmattan.ai/)

## Products & Services
- **Platform Autonomy**: AI‑driven autonomy layer for drones, enabling real‑time decision‑making and adaptation.
- **Mission Orchestration**: Software for coordinating multiple autonomous assets (e.g., collaborative air combat).
- **Precision Strike**: Attritable strike drones with embedded AI for target engagement.
- **VSHORAD (Very Short‑Range Air Defence)**: Counter‑drone interception systems.
- **Persistent ISR (Intelligence, Surveillance, Reconnaissance)**: Autonomous surveillance platforms for continuous battlefield awareness.
- **Electronic Warfare Platforms**: Systems for electronic attack and protection. [harmattan.ai](https://harmattan.ai/)

## Market Standing
- **Valuation**: $1.4 billion (as of January 2026, after Series B). [tech.eu](https://tech.eu/2026/01/12/french-startup-harmattan-ai-hits-unicorn-status-as-it-strikes-deal-with-french-aerospace-group/)
- **Key Metric**: Total funding ~$240 million ($200 M Series B led by Dassault Aviation + over $40 M prior). [tech.eu](https://tech.eu/2026/01/12/french-startup-harmattan-ai-hits-unicorn-status-as-it-strikes-deal-with-french-aerospace-group/)
- **Notable Investors/Partners**: Dassault Aviation (lead investor & strategic partner), multiple NATO allies as customers.
- **Growth Signals**:
  - Achieved unicorn status within two years of founding.
  - Awarded several “programs of record” by UK and French Ministries of Defence. [tech.eu](https://tech.eu/2026/01/12/french-startup-harmattan-ai-hits-unicorn-status-as-it-strikes-deal-with-french-aerospace-group/)
  - Scaling industrial manufacturing of drone interception and electronic warfare platforms.
  - Headcount grew to 131 employees (Built In estimate). [builtin.com](https://builtin.com/company/harmattan-ai)

## Competitive Advantages
- **Two‑layer autonomy model**: Combines platform‑level AI with mission‑orchestration software for coordinated, scalable autonomous forces.
- **Sovereign AI**: Focus on delivering non‑dependent capabilities to allied nations, differentiating from US‑centric primes.
- **Attritable systems**: Cost‑effective, expendable drones that enable mass deployment without prohibitive losses.
- **Speed to relevance**: Claims rapid iteration and deployment cycles, with conflict‑ready production. [harmattan.ai](https://harmattan.ai/)

## Strategic Focus
- Expand product offering into new operational domains (e.g., collaborative air combat with Dassault Aviation).
- Scale industrial manufacturing of drone interception, electronic warfare, and ISR platforms.
- Deepen integration of embedded AI into next‑generation air combat systems (future combat air systems). [tech.eu](https://tech.eu/2026/01/12/french-startup-harmattan-ai-hits-unicorn-status-as-it-strikes-deal-with-french-aerospace-group/)

## Why Work Here
- **Culture**: “Elite builders” who “thrive on complexity, move with urgency, and own their work end to end.” Emphasis on purpose, technical excellence, and real‑world impact. [harmattan.ai](https://harmattan.ai/careers/)
- **Values**: Tackle the hardest problems, build what matters, move at the speed of relevance, and aim to redefine frontiers. [harmattan.ai](https://harmattan.ai/careers/)
- **Work policy**: Hybrid model with a mix of remote and on‑site; many roles are in‑office at locations in Paris, Lausanne, London, Arlington (TX), Wissous, Poland, UAE, and Morocco. [builtin.com](https://builtin.com/company/harmattan-ai)
- **Engineering culture**: Hands‑on development of mission‑critical autonomous systems; strong R&D focus across AI, computer vision, RF hardware, propulsion, and mission planning.
- **Perks**: Not explicitly listed, but the company highlights the opportunity to protect front‑line personnel and shape the future of autonomous defence.

## Sources
1. [harmattan.ai](https://harmattan.ai/)
2. [harmattan.ai/careers](https://harmattan.ai/careers/)
3. [harmattan.ai/open-roles](https://harmattan.ai/open-roles)
4. [builtin.com](https://builtin.com/company/harmattan-ai)
5. [tech.eu](https://tech.eu/2026/01/12/french-startup-harmattan-ai-hits-unicorn-status-as-it-strikes-deal-with-french-aerospace-group/)

## Other roles at Harmattan AI

- [Field Service Lead](https://feeny.ai/job/field-service-lead-harmattan-ai-rabat-snasntwv4fa2) — Rabat, Morocco
- [Data Acquistion Module Lead](https://feeny.ai/job/data-acquistion-module-lead-harmattan-ai-paris-nd5w432k54cz) — Paris, France
- [FP&A Lead](https://feeny.ai/job/fp-a-lead-harmattan-ai-paris-v7yabp6mvh8r) — Paris, France
- [Facilities Coordinator](https://feeny.ai/job/facilities-coordinator-harmattan-ai-paris-fb3t9gebj0dw) — Paris, France
- [Program Manager](https://feeny.ai/job/program-manager-harmattan-ai-rabat-f1bwm8xf657x) — Rabat, Morocco
- [Technicien de Maintenance Multi-technique](https://feeny.ai/job/technicien-de-maintenance-multi-technique-harmattan-ai-orly-jpre9kc3p590) — Orly, France
- [System Identification Engineer](https://feeny.ai/job/system-identification-engineer-harmattan-ai-paris-a52y0646nxtw) — Paris, France
- [System Identification Engineer](https://feeny.ai/job/system-identification-engineer-harmattan-ai-lausanne-611s0xxg1tqd) — Lausanne, Switzerland
- [Director of Engineering, UAS Development](https://feeny.ai/job/director-of-engineering-uas-development-harmattan-ai-rabat-4m2fvdpc712j) — Rabat, Morocco
- [Global Sourcing Manager Sensors & Optics](https://feeny.ai/job/global-sourcing-manager-sensors-optics-harmattan-ai-paris-m94v0vadep8m) — Paris, France