Senior Navigation & Guidance Engineer Verified today
The Role
As a Senior Navigation & Guidance Engineer, you will be a core driver of the overall spacecraft GNC architecture. You will execute detailed trade studies to find novel ways to implement the spacecraft's guidance, attitude control, and attitude and orbit estimation systems.
In the first 3 months, you will support the development of the control infrastructure, from discrete filter design in the time domain to thorough analysis in the frequency domain. You will also support the development of autonomous orbit raise for a vehicle to MEO and the associated navigation to support that capability.
In the first 6 months, you will own and execute the Verification and Validation plan for the GNC stack, driving the system to flight readiness via robust analysis of vehicle performance in both nominal and off-nominal environments. You will commit code to the 6-DOF simulation and own a portion of the GNC flight software.
In the first year, you will support launch and on-orbit operations of the first full demonstration of the K2 spacecraft bus. In parallel, you will support block 2 upgrades of the GNC stack and 6-DOF simulation, taking lessons learned from on-orbit operations to increase simulation fidelity and vehicle performance.
Responsibilities
- Work with other engineering leads to develop and validate a novel high-level vehicle architecture
- Develop novel algorithms for precise pointing of very large, flexible structures in Earth orbit and beyond
- Develop novel slewing algorithms of very large, flexible structures in Earth orbit and beyond
- Develop simulation and modeling tools to support vehicle and GNC trade studies, including mission design, controls analysis, and 6-DOF simulation development
- Contribute to building the GNC organization by recruiting, hiring, and mentoring other engineers
Required Qualifications
- Experience with GNC actuator or sensor sizing, selection, and system design
- Experience with implementing attitude control and/or estimation algorithms on spacecraft
- Experience with verification and validation of GNC flight software in an integrated environment, leveraging 6-DOF simulation and HITL testing
- Experience with Python, Julia, C/C++, or Matlab for algorithm development, implementation, and simulation
Nice to Have
- Experience with early-stage spacecraft conceptual design (clean sheet design work)
- Experience with control algorithm development
- Experience with reaction wheel, control moment gyroscope, or thruster sizing and algorithm implementation
- Experience with navigation, specifically Extended Kalman Filters
- Experience with trajectory analysis, modeling, and mission design
- Experience with Rust software development
Compensation
- Base salary range: $160,000-$235,000 plus equity
- Comprehensive benefits including paid time off, medical/dental/vision coverage, life insurance, and paid parental leave