Ballistics Engineer

About the role

You will join a defense technology company that needs to know exactly where a projectile goes and what it does when it gets there, with statistical confidence rather than hope. The ballistics team covers interior, exterior, and terminal ballistics as one connected discipline, from chamber pressure through free flight to target interaction. Your models predict trajectory, dispersion, and lethality, and your range data proves the models right, closing the loop between simulation and measured performance on every program you support.

What you will achieve

• Build 6-DOF trajectory models that predict impact points within the measured dispersion of range testing across the full engagement envelope.
• Characterize interior ballistics for a gun or launch system, correlating pressure-time curves to muzzle velocity within 2 percent across hot, cold, and ambient conditioning.
• Deliver terminal effects analyses that quantify penetration, fragmentation, or behind-armor effect against representative targets.
• Cut range test costs by using simulation to downselect the three most promising projectile configurations before live firing.
• Produce lethality and effectiveness assessments with clear statistical confidence that feed weapon system design trades.

What you will bring

Must-haves

• You bring 2 to 5 years of experience in ballistics, projectile design, or weapons effectiveness analysis.
• You understand interior, exterior, and terminal ballistics as a connected discipline, not isolated topics.
• You have built or used trajectory simulation codes and can explain every assumption in them.
• You are familiar with range instrumentation: high-speed cameras, Doppler radar, pressure gauges, and target diagnostics.
• You apply statistics rigorously to dispersion, accuracy, and lethality data.
• You document analyses so thoroughly that an independent reviewer can reproduce your results.
• You have performed uncertainty quantification on ballistic predictions, separating model error from round-to-round variation.

Nice-to-haves

• You have designed or tested projectiles, sabots, or launch packaging.
• You bring experience with explicit dynamics FEA for penetration or impact events.
• You have supported live-fire lethality testing from planning through reporting.
• You hold an active security clearance or can obtain one.
• You bring experience with aeroballistic range testing or spark range data reduction.
• You have worked with Doppler radar or telemetry systems for in-flight projectile measurements.