Senior Software Engineer

The InstituteTechnology Innovation Institute (TII) a publicly funded research institute based in Abu Dhabi, the United Arab Emirates. It is home to a diverse community of leading scientists, engineers, mathematicians, and researchers from across the globe, transforming problems and roadblocks into pioneering research and technology prototypes that help move society ahead.Propulsion and Space Research Centre The digital engineering team within TII’s Propulsion & Space Research Centre develops software and engineering capabilities supporting propulsion and flight-vehicle research programmes.Current capabilities include an operational engineering platform supporting requirements and system models, test campaigns and results, risk and evidence registers, and interactive 3D visualization; validated physics and gas-turbine simulation software; an AI engineering assistant grounded in live platform data and operating on local infrastructure; and a growing hardware capability spanning data acquisition, engine telemetry and hardware-in-the-loop testing.The platform is already operational within an existing deployment. The team’s next phase is focused on establishing product-line standards, enabling versioned components, repeatable releases, multiple deployments and reliable engineering evidence outputs, with the longer-term ambition of developing a commercial-grade offering.The team operates with direct communication, short decision paths and high individual ownership. Software is developed against real engineering models, test-bench hardware and campaign data, with physics models serving as the technical source of truth.Role PurposeThe Senior Software Engineer – Simulation & Engineering Products will play a key role in developing and productizing the software backbone supporting propulsion and flight-vehicle research programmes within TII’s Propulsion & Space Research Centre.The role sits within a small digital engineering team responsible for an operational engineering platform, physics-based simulation software, AI-enabled engineering tools, and an expanding hardware and test integration capability.The successful candidate will be responsible for evolving these capabilities from programme-specific solutions into robust, maintainable and reusable software products built to product-line and commercial-grade standards. This includes establishing repeatable releases, versioned components, reliable deployment processes, stable APIs, test-evidence pipelines, and software that can support multiple programmes and future external applications.Key ResponsibilitiesSoftware Product EngineeringEvolve the existing engineering platform from a single-deployment system into a configurable, maintainable and reusable product capable of supporting multiple programmes and, in the future, external customers.Develop and enhance backend and frontend capabilities using technologies including Python/FastAPI and React.Support platform capabilities covering requirements and system models, including SysML v2, test campaigns and results, risk and evidence registers, and interactive 3D visualization.Improve overall product quality, including frontend experience, documentation, installation, upgrades, maintainability and security hardening.Apply a strong product mindset to software architecture and development, considering users, roadmaps, maintainability and total cost of ownership.CI/CD & Release EngineeringOwn and enhance CI/CD and release-engineering practices across the product.Develop automated build, test and deployment pipelines and comprehensive regression suites.Establish reliable versioning and release-management practices.Implement containerized deployments suitable for standard, offline and restricted-network environments.Develop deployment documentation, operational runbooks and repeatable installation and upgrade processes.Ensure releases are reliable, controlled and reproducible across deployments.Numerical & Simulation SoftwareSupport the engineering of physics-based software used as the technical source of truth, including:Validated gas-turbine performance solvers.Engine model adaptation using test data.Compiled real-time engine models.Extract existing model-adaptation and model-test correlation capabilities into independently versioned libraries with stable APIs.Enable numerical libraries to be consumed through the platform backend, command-line interfaces and future engineering tools.Apply appropriate software-engineering practices around scientific and numerical code, including tolerance-based testing, units management and floating-point considerations.Work closely with physics and model-development specialists to ensure numerical models are integrated and used appropriately.Test Data & Engineering EvidenceDesign and develop pipelines for ingesting engineering and test data using formats including TDMS and HDF5.Implement physics-based consistency and validation checks.Develop traceable and reviewable engineering evidence outputs and reports.Ensure test results and supporting evidence can be reliably linked to engineering models, requirements and programme activities.Hardware & Real-Time IntegrationSupport software integration at the hardware boundary, including data acquisition systems, engine telemetry and real-time targets.Contribute to the development and integration of a real-time hardware-in-the-loop (HIL) test capability.Support high-rate data logging, time synchronization and reliable data transfer between acquisition systems, real-time systems and the engineering platform.Engineering Quality & CollaborationAct as a senior technical reviewer for software, architecture and engineering designs.Conduct high-quality code reviews, identifying defects, maintainability concerns and opportunities for improvement.Work closely with the platform’s Lead Engineer and other technical specialists within a small, highly autonomous engineering team.Contribute to establishing and maintaining software-engineering standards across the team.Use AI-assisted development tools where appropriate while maintaining robust human review, testing and evaluation controls.Research & PublicationContribute to research and technical publications where the work presents publishable outcomes.Potential research areas include test-driven model adaptation, evaluation of grounded AI engineering assistants, and test-data engineering.QualificationsBachelor’s or Master’s degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, Computer Engineering, or a related technical discipline.Advanced academic qualifications in a relevant engineering or scientific discipline would be advantageous.ExperienceMinimum 7 years of experience building and shipping production-grade software.Demonstrated experience working with numerical, scientific, simulation or engineering software in domains such as aerospace, energy, automotive, scientific computing or quantitative finance.Proven experience owning software through the full development lifecycle, including deployment, operation, maintenance and support.Demonstrated experience shipping a software product, application, library or engineering tool through controlled and versioned releases.Experience making and managing API decisions, breaking changes, upgrade paths, bug fixes and ongoing product maintenance.Strong experience with CI/CD, DevOps, containerization, environment management, configuration management and release engineering.Technical CompetenciesStrong proficiency in Python.Strong full-stack software-development capability.Experience developing backend services using FastAPI, Django, Node.js, .NET, or comparable technologies.Experience with modern frontend frameworks such as React or Angular.Strong understanding of API design and user experience.Comfortable working alongside C/C++ codebases.Ability to understand and work with MATLAB or Fortran code where required.Strong knowledge of Git and modern source-control practices.Practical experience with Linux, containers and software deployment infrastructure.Understanding of numerical software considerations including:Tolerance-based testing.Units and dimensional consistency.Floating-point behaviour and associated pitfalls.Appropriate integration and validation of physics-based models.Strong software architecture, debugging, testing and code-review capabilities.Preferred Qualifications & ExperienceThe following experience would be advantageous but is not essential:Experience taking software products to external customers, including packaging, licensing, customer support and multi-site or multi-tenant deployments.Experience with engineering data formats and standards including HDF5, TDMS, FMI/co-simulation and ASAM ODS.Knowledge of gas turbines, turbomachinery, flight mechanics, propulsion systems or test and measurement.Real-time or embedded software experience, including Simulink code generation, real-time target machines or autopilot ecosystems.Experience deploying and maintaining software within offline, air-gapped or restricted-network environments.Experience with optimization, estimation, system identification or uncertainty quantification.Experience integrating software with data-acquisition systems, telemetry systems or hardware-in-the-loop environments.Behavioural CompetenciesStrong product and commercial mindset, with an understanding of users, product roadmaps, maintainability and total cost of ownership.High degree of ownership and accountability, with the ability to operate effectively within a small team and broad scope of responsibility.Strong analytical and problem-solving skills.Excellent technical judgment and attention to engineering quality.Ability to review others’ work constructively and communicate technical issues clearly.Comfortable working across software, simulation, engineering data and hardware interfaces.Ability to work collaboratively with software engineers, researchers, physicists and engineering specialists.Motivated by transforming research and engineering software into robust, scalable and commercially viable products.