---
title: 'System Identification Engineer at Harmattan AI'
canonical: 'https://feeny.ai/job/system-identification-engineer-harmattan-ai-lausanne-611s0xxg1tqd'
type: 'job'
last_seen: '2026-11-09'
---

# System Identification Engineer at Harmattan AI

- **Company:** [Harmattan AI](https://feeny.ai/companies/harmattan-ai)
- **Location:** Lausanne, Switzerland
- **Employment:** full-time
- **Work type:** onsite
- **Posted:** 2026-11-05
- **Last confirmed live:** 2026-11-09
- **Apply:** https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/harmattan-ai/601a96cb-d4e4-4aff-9530-4a3b0f2f2088

## 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

Every airframe Harmattan AI flies starts with a model. System identification turns flight data into the verified dynamics that guidance and control are designed, tuned and trained on. It is the foundation of an autopilot that adapts across multirotors, fixed wings, VTOLs and missiles. As a System Identification Engineer, working out of Lausanne, you will own the path from flight test to identified model. You will design and run your own experiments, build a repeatable identification pipeline, and deliver models the G&C team can trust.

## Responsibilities

- Experiment Design & Flight Test: Plan and run your own identification tests, from excitation design to flight tests, including coordinating with the .
- Model Identification: Identify rigid-body, aerodynamic, propulsion and actuator dynamics using frequency and time-domain methods, including closed-loop identification on vehicles flown under a controller.
- Propulsion & Actuators: Characterize motors, ESCs, propellers and control surfaces, including bandwidth, delays, saturation, and thermal and battery effects.
- Identification Pipeline: Build and maintain an automated, reproducible pipeline from flight logs to identified model. This covers ingestion, data-quality checks, estimation, validation and reporting.
- Model Validation: Validate models against held-out flight data, quantify uncertainty, and make sure each model is fit for purpose: controller design, simulation, or training learned G&C.
- New Airframes: Extend the capability from multirotors to control-surface multirotors, fixed wings, tail-sitters and missiles.
- Simulation & G&C Support: Deliver models into simulation, SITL and HITL, and work closely with control, guidance and embedded engineers to close the loop between models and flight results.
- Mentorship: Depending on seniority, support the team by mentoring junior engineers and interns.

Candidate Requirements

- Educational Background: A strong academic record with a degree in aerospace, control, mechanical engineering or a related STEM field. A practical track record matters more than the specific degree.
- System Identification: Proven experience identifying dynamic models of flying platforms from real data, in both the frequency and time domain, including the pitfalls of closed-loop data.
- Flight Mechanics & Control: Solid grasp of rigid-body dynamics, aerodynamic forces and moments, non-dimensionalization, stability modes and propulsion models. Also enough control background to know what the model will be used for.
- Flight Testing: Hands-on experience planning and running flight tests and working from raw, imperfect logs.
- Software: Strong Python and scientific computing skills, with the discipline to build tools others can rerun.

## Nice to have

- Rigorous about data quality, uncertainty and validation; skeptical of models until they are proven.
- Autonomous and hands-on, comfortable moving between bench, field and code.
- Communicates clearly, able to present models and test results to engineers and senior stakeholders.
- Thrives under pressure in a fast-paced environment with a no-task-is-too-small mentality.
- Fixed-wing aerodynamic modeling; VTOL or tail-sitter dynamics; remote pilot certification; experience with real flight logs; structural or vibration modes; data-driven or learned dynamics models.
- Commitment: 100% dedication to Harmattan AI’s mission of providing a defensive edge to allied nations through ethical, high-impact technology.

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
- [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
- [Drone System Reliability Technician and Pilot](https://feeny.ai/job/drone-system-reliability-technician-and-pilot-harmattan-ai-orly-yterfe2abwnm) — Orly, France