About the Team
The Seeker Team builds the eyes and the targeting logic of our weapon system: a low-cost, mass-producible, multimodal missile seeker that leans on commercial supply chains where they outperform, and vertically integrates wherever possible. On a modern missile, the seeker is 40 to 60% of unit cost and often drives overly long delivery cycles; accordingly, the seeker team is at the tip of the spear for delivering capability to our customers and value to the taxpayer.
Seeker design has exactly two real constraints: physics and mission. Nothing else is a show-stopper, only an obstacle to overcome. We are a small, deeply technical team that drives capability through ingenuity and bias for action and ships hardware that flies. This is a wear-many-hats environment where you must be comfortable "building the airplane in flight" and stepping well outside your comfort zone; a narrowly scoped role with clean handoffs is not what this team offers.
This is an AI-native team. Through fluent use of cutting-edge agentic coding tools, one engineer here consistently out-delivers a much larger conventional team. You will have opinions about where these tools help and where they do not, provide governance input, and build out an AI-centric workflow from day one.
About the Role
What You'll Do
Own the team's real-time, physics-based engagement simulation pipeline: scene, sensor, signal chain, and engagement logic, correct at speed.
Build and validate signature models for target hardbody and plume/exhaust phenomenology.
Own scene generation physics: DTED and georeferenced terrain, frames, projections, and accuracy budgets.
Model the aero-optical environment at Mach 3 speeds and reconcile it with the optical error budget.
Build and maintain end-to-end seeker performance models spanning scene, atmosphere, optics, FPA, ROIC, ADC, signal chain, and image processing in MWIR and LWIR.
Run Monte Carlo trade studies on optical, sensor, and signal-chain parameters and translate the results into program-level design decisions.
Validate models against captured imagery from lab, ground, and flight tests, and hold physics sign-off on every synthetic dataset the algorithms team trains against.
Skills We're Hiring For
B.S. in Optical Engineering, Physics, EE, Aerospace, or related; M.S. or Ph.D. preferred.
5+ years of classical EO/IR modeling and simulation, validated against measured sensor data.
MWIR/LWIR phenomenology: target signatures, atmospheric propagation, plume radiometry, and backgrounds.
Radiometry and sensor-chain modeling from first principles, photon budget to digital counts.
Modern Python for science and engineering; Git-based version control, with changes integrated through a CI/CD pipeline.
Bonus Points For
RF or radar M&S for multimodal sensor-fusion programs.
Aero-optical or hypersonic/supersonic flow-field modeling.
Hardware-in-the-loop or scene-projection (DMD, IRSP) experience.
CUDA and GPU programming experience.
Direct missile, munition, seeker, or guidance program experience.
Hands-on with MODTRAN, MUSES, DIRSIG, or an equivalent scene/atmosphere toolchain.
Sensor performance modeling with NV-IPM or equivalent.
Monte Carlo methods and statistics: designing trade studies and defending conclusions.
Daily use of agentic coding tools (Claude Code or similar) for model development and trade-study automation.
Unreal Engine, Unity, or similar engine experience.
Blender or similar 3D object rendering software.
Eligibility & Logistics Location: On-site at our Los Angeles, CA HQ; remote work is not available. Monthly weekend travel for test events and supplier engagements. Clearance: A clearance is not required for this position. Must be a U.S. Person.
Equal Opportunity & Export Compliance Furientis is an equal-opportunity employer. To comply with U.S. export control laws, employment is contingent on eligibility to access export-controlled information.