The weaponization of AI is driving a paradigm shift in the cyber security industry from proactive to preemptive security: clients must now invest more intelligence and effort in understanding their vulnerabilities before their adversaries do (Open AI). The only way to achieve this is to simulate future attack scenarios at scale, and to run them in high fidelity digital replicas of production environments (Gartner/Forrester). SimSpace serves as the AI Proving Grounds to generate hypersynthetic data which pressure tests controls, tools, teams, and agentic capabilities in full kill chain attacks hidden in realistic environmental traffic and patterns of life.
Founded in 2015 by experts from U.S. Cyber Command and MIT Lincoln Laboratory, the platform was initially conceived to assist in Offensive Cyber Operations (OCO), to quickly replicate target environments to conduct mission rehearsal of human operators and their tools to deny (disrupt, degrade, destroy) or deceive (manipulate or exfiltrate data) adversaries. The company has since expanded to serve over a dozen allied governments in OCO/DCO as well as critical infrastructure enterprises around the world. The company is actively investing in the Americas, Asia Pacific, Europe and the Middle East through direct sales and channel partners. SimSpace has launched the AI Proving Grounds Consortium, leading the revolution by creating an open platform for the InfoSec ecosystem to train, validate and operationalize their agentic capabilities before committing to production.
Why join SimSpace?
We are a team united by a shared purpose and four core values: Serve to Protect, Acquire Understanding, Teamwork without Borders, and Operate as Innovators. We value candid, constructive feedback and create opportunities for personal, professional, and financial growth. Our vision, “Defend the Free World,” drives our mission: “Defeat Any Adversary in Any Cyber Terrain at Machine Speed.”
How Do We Work?
We listen to customers and colleagues, challenge assumptions, and turn ideas into meaningful results. We expect everyone to embrace emerging technologies, simplify and automate work, and use AI to learn, solve problems, and help deliver quality with speed. We apply human judgment and take responsibility for outcomes. Whether remote or office-based, we collaborate across teams and time zones.
We invite you to apply today!
ABOUT THE ROLE
SimSpace builds the environments where the world's leading organizations train, test, and operationalize their cyber capabilities with confidence. We want the engineering teams behind that platform to set the standard for building software in the age of AI, not catch up to it.
As a Senior Software Engineering Manager, you'll lead and grow one of our engineering teams, make spec-driven development and AI-native workflows the way it builds software, and take charge of initiatives that reach well beyond it. You'll be accountable for the health of your team, the quality of what it ships, and the careers of the engineers who build it. You'll also keep your director, the leadership team, and cross-org partners clear on how effectively the team is delivering.
This is a people-leadership role with deep technical grounding. You lead through your team while staying close enough to the work to unblock hard problems and make smart trade-offs. We're looking for a high-agency engineering leader who doesn't just lead a team but leads initiatives - someone who takes charge, drives things forward, and never waits to be told how.
WHAT YOU'LL DO
LEAD AND GROW YOUR TEAM
- Lead, grow, and develop a team of engineers; own hiring, onboarding, 1:1s, performance, and career growth.
- Invest in your engineers as people - coaching, mentoring, and creating the conditions for them to do the best work of their careers.
- Set the team's direction, goals, and priorities, translating product strategy into a clear plan and predictable execution.
- Partner with your team's technical leaders as true counterparts - they own day-to-day technical direction, freeing you to focus on team health and org-wide initiatives.
MAKE SPEC-DRIVEN, AI-NATIVE DELIVERY THE NORM
- Lead your team in spec-driven development: specs, plans, and acceptance criteria come first; AI agents implement against them; and reviews verify the result.
- Make AI-native workflows the team's default, and judge them by team outcomes - delivery, quality, and predictability - rather than tool usage.
- Set clear standards for how AI-generated work is specified, reviewed, tested, and owned, and hold the team to them.
UNBLOCK THE TEAM AND DRIVE DELIVERY
- Own the delivery of your team's work end to end, balancing scope, quality, and timelines.
- Spot what's slowing the team down and remove it - technical, process, or cross-team - before it becomes a schedule problem.
- Stay close enough to the technical decisions to review work credibly and unblock the hard problems.
- Take real ownership of outcomes, holding the team accountable to a high bar while keeping delivery moving.
LEAD INITIATIVES AND DRIVE ENGINEERING MATURITY
- Take charge of initiatives that span teams - from framing the problem and building alignment through delivery - and drive them to completion.
- Drive engineering maturity forward - from AI-native workflows and spec-driven development to end-to-end testing in CI/CD - on your team and across the organization.
- Influence how the broader organization works - improving processes, standards, and ways of working beyond your own team.
COMMUNICATE UP AND ACROSS
- Communicate your team's effectiveness - delivery, quality, and health - to your director and the leadership team, with evidence and trends rather than anecdotes.
- Keep cross-org partners in Product, QA, platform teams, and other engineering teams informed of progress, risks, and trade-offs before they have to ask.
- Bring risks forward early with a proposed path, not just a problem.
- Partner with Product Management to align engineering work with business objectives and maintain plans and resourcing for predictable delivery.
WHAT YOU BRING
REQUIRED QUALIFICATIONS
- 10+ years in software engineering, with 6+ years directly managing or leading engineers.
- Proven ability to lead and grow engineering teams, including distributed or hybrid teams.
- Extensive experience leading teams in spec-driven development with AI - specs, plans, and acceptance criteria written first, then implemented by agents and verified against.
- AI-native engineering experience as a leader, not necessarily as an individual contributor: you've led a team in adopting AI coding agents and can show how it changed the way the team delivers.
- Years of experience reporting out to and communicating with cross-org partners, keeping them aligned on progress, risks, and trade-offs.
- Experience communicating team effectiveness to directors and other leadership team members - clearly, candidly, and with evidence.
- Demonstrated ability to unblock teams, drive engineering maturity forward, and lead cross-team initiatives to completion.
- Strong technical depth - ideally in TypeScript, React, or Kotlin - enough to guide architecture and review work credibly.
PREFERRED QUALIFICATIONS
- Experience driving the maturity of end-to-end testing in CI/CD pipelines, making suites fast, reliable, and trusted enough to gate a release.
- A track record of moving fast with teams: small batches, short feedback loops, and frequent releases without lowering the quality bar.
- Comfort owning services in production - CI/CD, observability, reliability, and operational ownership.
- Experience adapting teams through reorganizations, roadmap shifts, or rapid growth.
- Bachelor's in Computer Science or a related field (or equivalent practical experience).
WHO YOU ARE
- High agency - you see what needs to happen and make it happen, without waiting for a ticket, a meeting, or permission.
- You step up when an initiative needs a leader, and you drive it to done.
- You genuinely care about people - you build engineers up, grow careers, and create teams others want to be on.
- You're AI-native as a leader: you know what good looks like for spec-driven, agent-assisted work, and you hold the team to it.
- You communicate up and across with clarity and candor, and you close loops without being chased.
- You lead through your team but stay close enough to make - and unblock - hard technical calls.
- You influence how things work across teams, improving the system rather than just working within it.
WHY THIS ROLE MATTERS
AI is changing how software gets built, and the teams that learn to direct it well - specifying clearly, verifying rigorously, and shipping in fast, safe increments - will set the pace. As a Senior Software Engineering Manager, you'll build one of those teams and lead the initiatives that bring the rest of engineering along - setting the standard for how work gets delivered, how problems get solved, and how teams grow. Your impact compounds: a strong team, a more mature organization, and leadership that always knows where things stand.
OUR TECH STACK INCLUDES
Codex, TypeScript, React, Kotlin, Git/GitHub, Docker, Kubernetes, ArgoCD, and Playwright.
WE’RE PROUD TO OFFER A COMPETITIVE AND COMPREHENSIVE PACKAGE DESIGNED TO SUPPORT YOUR WELL-BEING, GROWTH, AND SUCCESS:
- Compensation. Base salary range: $180,000 - $250,000, reflecting our confidence in your expertise and impact, with the opportunity for annual bonuses tied to company performance and individual contributions.
- Health & Wellness. Comprehensive medical, dental, and vision benefits, plus savings plans - coverage starts on day one!
- Mental Health Support. Access to company-paid counseling, coaching, and resources for you and your family through Spring Health.
- Financial Well-Being. Plan for your future with a 401(k)-retirement savings plan featuring a company match.
- Flexible Time Off. Take the time you need with unlimited vacation and dedicated health & wellness days. SimSpace provides flexible solutions to meet the diverse work-life needs of team members.
- Parental Leave. Paid leave plans to support you and your loved ones during life’s most important moments.
- Ownership Opportunities: Equity stock options at hire, with annual performance-based grants - become an invested stakeholder in our shared success.
- Referral Rewards: Earn $1,500–$3,500 for every qualified hire through our employee referral program.
- Peloton Interactive Wellness Program: Full- and partial- subsidized membership plans and equipment discounts to help you reach your personalized fitness goals.
- Continuous Learning: Access a LinkedIn Learning membership to prioritize your personal and professional development.
- Social Connections: Monthly reimbursements for meaningful connections with teammates through our SocialSpace Community.
- Extra Perks: Legal plan coverage, pet insurance, wellness reimbursements, and more to simplify life’s details.
SimSpace is an Equal Opportunity Employer:
In compliance with federal law, all persons hired will be required to verify identity and eligibility to work in the United States and to complete the required employment eligibility verification document form upon hire.
SimSpace is an Equal Opportunity Employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, age, pregnancy, genetic information, disability, status as a protected veteran, or any other protected category under applicable federal, state, and local laws. We are committed to providing an inclusive and welcoming environment for all members of our staff, clients, volunteers, subcontractors, vendors, and clients.
Research shows that women and people from underrepresented groups only apply to jobs if they meet all of the qualifications. However, no one ever meets 100% of the qualifications. SimSpace encourages you to break that statistic and to apply. We look forward to your application!
We also consider qualified applicants regardless of criminal histories, in accordance with applicable law. We are committed to providing reasonable accommodations for qualified individuals with disabilities in our job application procedures. If you need assistance or accommodation due to a disability, please contact careers@simspace.com.
SimSpace does not accept unsolicited resumes from employment agencies.
Actual compensation for the position is based on a variety of factors, including, but not limited to affordability, skills, qualifications and experience, and may vary from the range.
