---
title: 'Software Engineer I,II,III: Simulations at Lodestar'
canonical: 'https://feeny.ai/job/software-engineer-i-ii-iii-simulations-lodestar-los-angeles-nqya82tma539'
type: 'job'
last_seen: '2026-09-09'
---

# Software Engineer I,II,III: Simulations at Lodestar

- **Company:** Lodestar
- **Location:** Los Angeles, CA
- **Posted:** 2026-09-07
- **Last confirmed live:** 2026-09-09
- **Apply:** https://job-boards.eu.greenhouse.io/lodestarspace/jobs/4969756101

## Job description

## About Lodestar

Lodestar's mission is to develop the first "Protect and Defend" capability for high-value space assets in orbit. Our flagship product MITHRIL is the critical hardware & software necessary to augment any off-the-shelf spacecraft with the ability to autonomously detect, characterise, and reversibly neutralise orbital threats. By building on the proven space heritage of our best-in-class satellite-bus partners and fully integrating MITHRIL as a single platform, we deliver a fully autonomous end-to-end protection spacecraft service.

## About the Job

At Lodestar, as a Software Engineer: Simulation, you'll build the environment in which MITHRIL is developed, tested and proven. Every autonomy behaviour we fly is validated in simulation first, which makes the simulator one of the highest-leverage pieces of software in the company: if it isn't faithful, nothing downstream can be trusted.

You'll develop high-fidelity sensor and environment models in Unreal Engine, stand up the software- and hardware-in-the-loop benches that our flight software runs against, and design the distributed services that let scenarios run reproducibly across machines and in CI. You'll work directly with the perception, prediction, decision, and missions teams to decide what needs simulating, at what fidelity, and why.

We proudly have an "extreme ownership" oriented engineering culture.

## What You’ll Do

- Build and extend the mission simulation environment that Lodestar's autonomy stack is developed and validated against
- Develop high-fidelity sensor and environment models - electro-optical cameras, orbital lighting and illumination
- Build software-in-the-loop and hardware-in-the-loop test benches so that flight software can be trialed against realistic simulated missions
- Design distributed simulation services to run mission scenarios at scale
- Own the internal simulation tooling, telemetry, and regression frameworks

## Basic Qualifications

We are hiring this role at three levels. All levels require a Bachelor's or Master's degree in Computer Science, Aerospace, Robotics, Mechanical or Electrical Engineering, a related field, or equivalent experience.

Software Engineer I

- 0–2 years of professional experience in simulation, robotics, games. Can also include Internships and research placements.
- Working proficiency in C++ and Python
- Exposure to ROS 2 in an academic, research, or professional setting
- Understanding of multithreading fundamentals - threads, synchronization primitives, race conditions
- Familiarity with 3D game engines (Unreal Engine or Unity) or comparable physics and graphics simulation tooling
- Comfortable developing in Linux and with containerised workflows (Docker)

Software Engineer II

- 2–5 years of industry experience building simulation, robotics, or games.
- Strong modern C++ (C++17 or later) alongside Python
- Production experience with ROS 2 - node design, DDS middleware, message passing, launch and configuration management
- Hands-on SIL and/or HIL experience: building test harnesses and integrating real vehicle or flight software against simulated sensors and actuators
- Experience with Unreal Engine for sensor or environment simulation, or equivalent depth in Unity, Isaac Sim, or Gazebo
- Experience designing distributed services - inter-process communication, message transport, and orchestration across multiple machines
- Demonstrated multithreaded and concurrent programming in a real-time or soft-real-time context

Software Engineer III

- 6+ years of industry experience, including end-to-end ownership of a simulation stack or a major simulation subsystem
- Track record architecting simulation infrastructure - deciding what to model at what fidelity, and defending those trade-offs to engineering stakeholders
- Depth in real-time distributed system design: determinism, time synchronisation, clock management, and reproducibility across nodes
- Experience standing up HIL benches or SIL pipelines from scratch, including CI integration and automated regression testing
- Experience mentoring engineers and setting technical direction across team boundaries
- Comfortable deriving requirements from first principles

## Preferred Skills & Experience

- Familiarity with orbital mechanics and Basilisk
- Experience with physics engines and rigid-body dynamics
- Sensor modelling experience across electro-optical, LIDAR, RADAR, or RF sensors
- Experience with GPU rendering pipelines or CUDA for accelerated simulation and synthetic data generation
- Exposure to robotics or space simulation frameworks such as Gazebo, Isaac Sim, Basilisk, or 42
- Experience with distributed transports (DDS, Zenoh, gRPC) and time-synchronisation protocols (PTP, NTP)
- Experience with Linux, Git, and CI/CD pipelines
- Comfortable with containerisation and orchestration tools such as Docker and Kubernetes
- Strong understanding of networking and communication protocols for distributed autonomy systems

Candidates should have strong expertise in any or all orbital dynamic simulation, 3D game engines, or distributed simulation architecture (ROS2).

ITAR Requirements

To conform to U.S. Government space technology export regulations, including the International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR) you must be a U.S. citizen, lawful permanent resident of the U.S., protected individual as defined by 8 U.S.C. 1324b(a)(3), or eligible to obtain the required authorizations from the U.S. Department of State. Learn more about the ITAR [here](https://www.pmddtc.state.gov/?id=ddtc_kb_article_page&sys_id=24d528fddbfc930044f9ff621f961987).

## Compensation & Benefits

- Our full band structure for this role:
- (P1) Entry: $99,000 - $133,000 / year
- (P2) Developing: $115,000 - $174,000 / year
- (P3) Career: $136,000 - $200,000 / year
- (P4) Senior: $175,000 - $250,000 / year
- Meaningful equity incentives as part of our employee option pool
- Flexible PTO with generous paid vacation, holidays, and sick leave
- Comprehensive medical, dental & vision coverage
- 401(k) retirement plan with company match
- Los Angeles

Additional Information

Compensation bands are determined by role, level, location, and alignment with market data. Individual level and base pay is determined on a case-by-case basis and may vary based on job-related skills, education, experience, technical capabilities and internal equity. In addition to base salary, for full-time hires, you may also be eligible for long-term incentives, in the form of stock options , and access to medical, vision and dental coverage, as well as access to a 401(k) retirement plan.

Lodestar is an Equal Opportunity Employer; employment with Lodestar is governed on the basis of merit, competence and qualifications and will not be influenced in any manner by race, color, religion, gender, national origin/ethnicity, veteran status, disability status, age, sexual orientation, gender identity, marital status, mental or physical disability or any other legally protected status.

## About Lodestar

## Core Business
- **Primary Industry**: Defense and Space Manufacturing
- **Target Customers**: Government and allied defense agencies (B2G); specifically US and allied space asset operators
- **Mission**: To deter conflict in space by providing credible, sovereign orbital defense capabilities through autonomous AI software and satellite platforms.

## Products & Services
- **Mithril AI (Autonomous AI Fighter-Pilot)**: Software that runs on orbital bodyguard satellites, enabling real-time space situational awareness, threat detection, classification, and autonomous response. Designed for on-orbit SDA, inspection, and effect delivery.
- **Orbital Defence as a Service**: End-to-end protection stack for high-value satellites, from detection and intelligence to active response, delivered via a fleet of bodyguard satellites.

## Market Standing
- **Valuation/Market Cap**: Not publicly available (private company)
- **Key Metric**: Total funding of approximately $3.55M (as of early 2026), comprising a $2.5M Pre-Seed round led by Lunar Ventures and Inflection, plus grants from the UK Space Agency ($1M) and European Space Agency.
- **Notable Investors/Partners**: Lunar Ventures, Inflection, UK Space Agency, European Space Agency, Charlie Songhurst, Zehan Wang
- **Growth Signals**: 
  - 14 employees with 8 active job postings (indicating rapid scaling)
  - First satellite payload scheduled for launch in early 2027
  - Government contracts and briefings with Pentagon and UK defense stakeholders
  - Growing European defense budgets (e.g., Germany’s €30-35B by 2030)

## Competitive Advantages
- **Purpose-built for defense**: Unlike competitors that repurpose commercial tech, Lodestar designs from the ground up for resilience, responsiveness, and sovereignty in contested orbits.
- **End-to-end protection stack**: The only company offering a unified system from detection to autonomous response, rather than point solutions.
- **AI-first approach**: The core asset is the AI model, not the satellite hardware, allowing rapid adaptation to evolving threats without long hardware cycles.
- **Government trust**: Early backing from UK Space Agency and ESA, plus direct engagement with Pentagon-level customers.

## Strategic Focus
- Launch first on-orbit payload to gather proximity data and validate AI models in space
- Expand partnerships with allied defense agencies and prime contractors
- Scale the team (especially engineering and avionics) to accelerate product development
- Win additional government contracts for operational bodyguard satellite systems

## Why Work Here
- **Mission-driven culture**: Work on one of the most pressing national security challenges – space defense – with a clear, unapologetic mission to deter conflict.
- **Cutting-edge technology**: Tackle hard problems in AI, computer vision, on-board autonomy, and spacecraft systems.
- **Small team, big impact**: 14-person team with flat structure; engineers have direct ownership of critical systems.
- **Growth opportunity**: Rapidly scaling with 8 open roles; chance to shape the company’s technical direction.
- **Locations**: Offices in Los Angeles (HQ) and London, UK; hybrid/remote flexibility likely (based on speculative applications accepted from US and UK).
- **Notable perks**: Work with former engineers from MBDA, Orbex, Airbus Defence & Space, and Imperial College London rocketry teams.

## Sources
1. [Lodestar Space Website](https://www.lodestar.space/)
2. [LinkedIn Company Page](https://www.linkedin.com/company/lodestarspace)
3. [CB Insights Profile](https://www.cbinsights.com/company/lodestar-3)
4. [UKspace Member Profile](https://www.ukspace.org/start-up-member/lodestar-space/)
5. [Resilience Media Interview](https://resiliencemedia.co/lodestar-is-building-satellite-bodyguards/)
6. [Greenhouse Careers Page](https://job-boards.greenhouse.io/lodestarspace)

## Other roles at Lodestar

- [Software Engineer I or II: State Estimation & Prediction](https://feeny.ai/job/software-engineer-i-or-ii-state-estimation-prediction-lodestar-los-angeles-x94pk8tr5jsg) — Los Angeles, CA
- [Software Engineer I: Perception](https://feeny.ai/job/software-engineer-i-perception-lodestar-los-angeles-86nt051a9fsr) — Los Angeles, CA
- [Technical Proposal Writer](https://feeny.ai/job/technical-proposal-writer-lodestar-los-angeles-8m9d888rr3ft) — Los Angeles, CA
- [Director of Capture and Proposal Operations](https://feeny.ai/job/director-of-capture-and-proposal-operations-lodestar-los-angeles-81ha6p7n0ymq) — Los Angeles, CA
- [Avionics Hardware Engineer](https://feeny.ai/job/avionics-hardware-engineer-lodestar-london-v88vfnycw44z) — London, United Kingdom
- [Avionics Software Engineer](https://feeny.ai/job/avionics-software-engineer-lodestar-london-tnxkbb7w530b) — London, United Kingdom
- [Software Engineer II: On-board Autonomy](https://feeny.ai/job/software-engineer-ii-on-board-autonomy-lodestar-los-angeles-ps92yzwddgz3) — Los Angeles, CA