Simulation Engineer

The Role As a Simulation Software Engineer , you will own substantial parts of the simulation capability that makes continent-scale defence training feel like the real world. Your work will ship into customer exercises, live demonstrators and integration hackathons, where the loop between building something and watching users bend it to a real problem is measured in weeks, not quarters. You'll work across a C++ simulation engine , a custom distribution framework, and a TypeScript/React front-end used by Simulation Operators, inside a cross-functional team of Software, QA and DevOps Engineers led by an Engineering Manager.

The team is made up of experienced simulation engineers looking for a peer who can bring energy, technical leadership and a product engineering mindset. If you enjoy moving between specialisms, raising the bar for the people around you, and shipping real things for users who depend on them, this is a role where your voice will carry real weight. Key Responsibilities Design and implement behaviour and decision-making logic for simulated entities - pedestrians, vehicles, shipping and aircraft - in a C++ simulation engine.

Integrate third-party simulation libraries and algorithms, maintaining enough technical intuition for their internals to combine them into a coherent system. Shape how simulation state and behaviour are partitioned across a distribution framework, designing for IPC, bandwidth and fidelity trade-offs up front rather than retrofitting them. Contribute across the web/simulation boundary, extending REST services and the TypeScript/React front-end where features reach into them.

Write design documentation and run design reviews within your area, helping the team converge on technical direction quickly. Review peers' designs and code with care, and collaborate with Product and defence stakeholders to turn customer problems into feature shapes. Mentor teammates through pairing, code review and knowledge sharing - raising the team's capability in simulation craft, product engineering practice and defence domain understanding.

Deploy and support simulation capability on-site at customer exercises, integration hackathons and industry events - working issues live alongside users and folding what you learn back into the product. Skills, Knowledge and Experience 4+ years of software engineering experience. Experience working on behavioural or agent-based simulation of people, crowds or vehicles, such as game AI, VFX crowd simulation, industrial human behaviour simulation or defence CGF.

Strong C++ experience for performance-sensitive, real-time systems. Working knowledge of spatial data structures, path planning, decision modelling and physical modelling of vehicle movement. Ability to reason about distributed simulation design - IPC, bandwidth and how to split a simulation domain across processes without breaking its behaviour.

Ability to move comfortably between languages and layers of the stack. A communicative, proactive style - visible in discussions, willing to challenge and be challenged, and able to draw contributions out of teammates. A product engineering mindset: energised by understanding customer problems and shipping things that create real value.

Comfortable multiplying yourself with AI-assisted development workflows. Able to obtain and maintain UK Security Vetted status to at least SC level . Prepared to attend an office in London at least once a week .

What Will Help You Stand Out Hands-on experience exposing LLM-enabled product features, such as natural language interfaces, content generation or agent behaviour driven by language models. Rust experience, particularly for distributed or systems-level work. Knowledge of geospatial concepts and experience processing map data into representations suitable for simulation.

Familiarity with the defence sector, military modelling and simulation, or wargaming. Exposure to Kubernetes for compute cluster orchestration. Prior experience as a tech lead or similar, with an interest in that pathway as the team grows.

Interest in travelling to customer sites, hackathons and industry events. JBRP1_UKTJ