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Staff GNC Engineer (State Estimation) Verified today

Inversion Space · Playa Vista, CA · Space Systems · first seen 2026-08-13
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About Inversion Space

Inversion is an aerospace and defense company pioneering advanced reentry technology. The company designs, manufactures, and integrates its highly maneuverable reentry spacecraft, Arc, for rapid global cargo delivery, hypersonic testing, and national security missions requiring precise controlled flight through the atmosphere.

The Role

As Staff GNC Engineer (State Estimation), you will develop the estimation and prediction systems that give our vehicles an accurate, continuously updated picture of external systems. You will draw on classical estimation theory and modern learned methods to solve this problem in a demanding flight regime, similar to the prediction stacks used in autonomous vehicles but for aerospace applications.

Key Responsibilities

  • Develop state estimation and tracking algorithms for external aerospace systems, spanning cooperative platforms and non-cooperative objects observed through onboard sensors
  • Model and predict the behavior of external systems, including maneuvering objects with uncertain intent
  • Train, validate, and deploy neural network models for trajectory and behavior prediction, integrating them alongside classical filtering approaches
  • Develop probabilistic representations of external-object state and intent for downstream guidance and planning functions
  • Build metrics, tooling, and datasets to quantify estimation and prediction error and drive systematic improvement
  • Integrate estimation and prediction algorithms into 3-DOF and 6-DOF simulation and real-time flight software
  • Work closely with guidance, sensors, and simulation teams to close vehicle-level performance

Required Qualifications

  • Bachelor's degree in Aerospace Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Robotics, or related field, or equivalent experience
  • Typically 9+ years of applicable experience developing and testing estimation, tracking, or GNC algorithms and systems
  • Experience with behavior or trajectory prediction for autonomous vehicles, robotics, or similar multi-agent domains, including probabilistic prediction of agent intent
  • Experience with modern deep learning frameworks such as PyTorch or JAX and infrastructure to train models at scale
  • Experience estimating and tracking the state of dynamic objects from noisy, intermittent, or limited sensor data
  • Experience training and implementing neural networks for prediction, tracking, or related applications
  • Solid grasp of classical mechanics, dynamics, and rigid body motion
  • Proficiency in Python, MATLAB, or C++ for simulation and analysis
  • Excellent verbal and written communication skills
  • Capability to work in a dynamic, fast-paced startup environment
  • Ability to obtain and maintain a U.S. government Secret/Top Secret security clearance

Desired Qualifications

  • Master's or PhD in Aerospace Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Robotics, or related field
  • Experience with vehicle performance estimation and characterization from flight or test data
  • Strong fundamental understanding of estimation theory, including Kalman filtering and nonlinear variants, multi-hypothesis and interacting multiple model (IMM) approaches, and sensor fusion
  • Experience deploying learned models to real-time, compute-restricted embedded environments
  • Experience with trajectory optimization
  • Experience with multi-target tracking, data association, and track management
  • Familiarity with flight dynamics of reentry, hypersonic, or orbital systems
  • Experience developing 3-DOF and 6-DOF flight simulations
  • Hardware-in-the-Loop (HITL) test experience
  • Prior experience working in startups or small independent teams

Location and Compensation

This position requires in-office presence at our headquarters in Playa Vista, California. The California annual base salary range is $161,000 to $221,000. Individual pay will be determined based on role, level, location, market data, interview performance, job-related skills, relevant education and experience, certifications, and internal equity considerations.

ITAR Compliance

To conform to U.S. Government space technology export regulations, including the International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR), you must be a U.S. citizen, lawful permanent resident of the U.S., protected individual as defined by 8 U.S.C. 1324b(a)(3), or eligible to obtain required authorizations from the U.S. Department of State.