Senior GNC Engineer Verified today

The Role

Outpost is building reusable Earth-return vehicles that unlock in-space manufacturing, on-orbit warehousing, and global delivery through space. The CarryAll vehicle family returns payloads from 200 kilograms to 10 metric tons, lands within 10 meters of its target, and can be refurbished and launched again.

Getting mass from orbit to a precise point on the ground is a GNC problem end to end: a deorbit burn that hits an entry corridor, hypersonic entry that bleeds energy within structural and thermal limits, and guided descent that lands on target repeatably and cheaply enough to do it often.

You will own that complete chain. This is not a role where you hand algorithms over a wall. You will design the guidance and estimation architecture, write the flight code, put it on hardware, run HIL tests, go to drop tests and flight campaigns, and return with data that changes the design.

Responsibilities

• Model, design, analyse, implement and test satellite attitude determination and control (ADCS) algorithms.
• Specify hardware performance including reaction wheel and torque rod sizing, sensor noise and performance, redundancy and fault management.
• Define and own ADCS requirements with electrical and mechanical engineers.
• Implement closed loop pointing, orbit raising, and station keeping algorithms for flight.
• Analyse platform stability to ensure low jitter of line-of-sight instruments.
• Develop high-fidelity 6-degree-of-freedom satellite simulations using Python, Matlab or C++.
• Develop entry guidance, entry corridor and reachability analysis, deorbit burn targeting, aerothermal and load-constrained trajectory shaping.
• Develop EKF and UKF with GNSS, IMU, air data, radar or laser altimetry, magnetometers, and optical or terrain-relative sensors; sensor error modelling and calibration; GNSS-denied or degraded navigation, including through plasma blackout.

Basic Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in a related technical discipline with 5+ years as a GNC or Controls professional, or Advanced degree with 3+ years as a GNC or Controls professional.
• Software development experience in C++ and Python.
• Experience in software tools such as Git, Jira, and CI Pipeline.
• Algorithms on real hardware (e.g. Extended Kalman Filters, LQR).
• Strong understanding of classical dynamics, modelling and simulation, classical and modern control.
• Ability to work in a fast-paced, autonomously driven atmosphere.
• Passion for space and the application of advanced estimation and control techniques in this domain.

Additional Qualifications

• Experience with implementing optimal control for burn planning.
• Experience with satellite manoeuvring and thruster systems.
• Demonstrated project or professional experience in satellite attitude determination and control.
• Experience in end-to-end development of three-axis stabilised spacecraft incorporating momentum, magnetic, and/or propulsive control.
• Experience with flexible body control, orbital manoeuvring, filtering, fault management, software development, and navigation filtering.

Location

Playa Vista, California, in-person, five days per week.