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 Automated Testing Module Lead, you take ownership of how Harmattan validates its autonomy and flight-software stack. Today, our software is validated mostly against real hardware, a process that consumes airframes, range time, and crew while sampling only a handful of nominal trajectories. The cases we actually build for, such as degraded GNSS, sensor dropout, electronic warfare, and multi-agent situations, are rarely reached economically that way. Your mission is to establish the scenario library, execution strategy, and interface bricks to turn our existing simulation platform into a fast, reliable, and continuous validation engine.
This is a senior, hands-on technical leadership role. You inherit an active team of four engineers across Paris and Lausanne, with a target of around eight by mid-2027. Beyond leading the team, you become the technical authority on our scenario-based testing: defining what runs across SITL, HITL, and CI, holding critical technical boundaries with adjacent teams, and bridging the gap between simulation fidelity and real flight data.
What You Will Do
Team Leadership & Strategy: Take over, structure, and give a clear mandate to our existing team of four engineers, while building the case and the roadmap to scale the module to around eight by mid-2027.
Scenario & Simulation Engineering: Drive the design of a versioned scenario library covering nominal, edge, off-nominal, and contested flight conditions, expanding into Monte Carlo and multi-agent testing, and bring a team with no prior simulation experience up that curve.Execution Strategy & Gating: Establish what tests run across SITL, HITL, and CI, defining gating policies, telemetry capture, deterministic replay, and coverage analytics.
Interface & Boundary Ownership: Negotiate, then maintain, strong, written technical boundaries with Tooling (who provide the simulation platform) and co-ownership splits with Validation (who define acceptance criteria and own final sign-off).
Sim-to-Real Correlation: Correlate simulation models against real flight data to continuously measure and close the sim-to-real gap, ensuring green test gates reflect real-world flight readiness.
What We Are Looking For
Experience: 8+ years in automated testing, simulation-based validation, or test engineering for complex physical / hardware-in-the-loop systems (e.g., Autonomous Driving, Aerospace, Defense, Robotics).
Scenario & Simulation Depth: Hands-on experience designing scenario-based test suites on a simulation platform and defining coverage that genuinely catches defects. This is the capability our current team lacks, and therefore the most valuable thing you can bring.Technical Depth: Hands-on proficiency in Python, C++, Linux, Docker, and CI environments, with deep domain expertise in scenario design, SITL/HITL execution, and simulation tools.
Leadership & Ownership: Proven ability to step into an existing engineering team, establish immediate clarity, and manage distributed engineers (Paris and Lausanne) effectively**, including engineers more senior than you in years of experience**.
Validation Mindset: A rigorous, analytical approach to noisy physical metrics, false positives, and flaky test environments, instinctively questioning what a passing test proves.
Cross-Functional Diplomacy: Track record of defining and holding clear interfaces with platform providers and internal customer teams.
Bonus: Background in defense/aerospace flight software, control systems, or experience closing sim-to-real fidelity gaps.Location & Travel: Based in Paris or Lausanne, with travel between sites. Working-
level English.
What We Offer
Immediate Impact: Take over an established mandate with an existing team and pre-built simulation platform, delivering test capability in weeks rather than building from scratch.
High System Scope: Own the entire scenario library and execution strategy across our autonomy stack.
Direct Mission Impact: Build test pipelines that directly accelerate the deployment of resilient autonomous systems in real-world defense environments.
Cross-Functional Ownership: Work closely with Tooling, Validation, GNC, Perception, and Embedded SW teams to shape the future of flight-software reliability.
We look forward to hearing how you can help shape the future of autonomous defense systems at Harmattan AI.
Skills Required
- 8+ years of experience in automated testing, simulation-based validation, or test engineering for complex physical or hardware-in-the-loop systems
- Hands-on experience designing scenario-based test suites on a simulation platform and defining meaningful test coverage
- Proficiency in Python, C++, Linux, Docker, and continuous integration environments
- Deep expertise in scenario design, SITL/HITL execution, and simulation tools
- Experience leading and scaling engineering teams, including distributed engineers
- Ability to define technical interfaces and collaborate with platform providers and internal customer teams
- Rigorous analytical approach to physical metrics, false positives, and flaky test environments
- Working-level English
- Based in Paris or Lausanne, with travel between sites
- Background in defense or aerospace flight software, control systems, or sim-to-real fidelity
Harmattan AI Compensation & Benefits Highlights
The following summarizes recurring compensation and benefits themes identified from responses generated by popular LLMs to common candidate questions about Harmattan AI and has not been reviewed or approved by Harmattan AI.
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Fair & Transparent Compensation — Pay ranges are publicly shown for multiple U.S. roles (e.g., $140k–$200k base) and appear broadly in line with late‑stage startup/defense‑tech expectations based on the postings cited.
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Equity Value & Accessibility — Equity is repeatedly referenced in several job postings as part of total compensation, which can increase upside potential at a recently funded, high‑valuation company.
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Strong & Reliable Incentives — Sign‑on bonuses are explicitly mentioned in a hiring post for candidates who can start quickly, indicating the use of cash incentives in at least some hiring situations.
Harmattan AI Insights
What We Do
Harmattan AI is rising as a next-generation defense prime, building the future of autonomous warfare. We leverage AI-driven autonomy, real-time intelligence, and conflict-ready production to deliver attritable systems and autonomous mission management software. Designed for the real-world needs of warfighters, our solutions enable faster deployment, sharper decision-making, and battlefield dominance.
