Senior GNC Engineer

Description

The company is moving quickly to build and deliver advanced defense systems, and it is assembling a strong team to turn ambitious ideas into working capability.

This is an early-stage role where you would have substantial ownership, work alongside strong colleagues, and have a visible effect on the company's direction, whatever your function.

The company needs a Senior GNC Engineer to build guidance, navigation, and control solutions for its long-range hypersonic strike vehicles. The work keeps flight stable, precise, and adaptable through every mission phase. You will work directly with multidisciplinary engineering teams to design, analyze, implement, and validate control and autopilot algorithms in a hardware-driven setting with a quick pace.

Responsibilities

• Design and build flight control and autopilot algorithms for high-speed vehicles flying both within and above the atmosphere.
• Create advanced control strategies, including adaptive and robust methods, that hold performance when conditions are uncertain or changing.
• Model, simulate, and analyze the vehicle in 3DOF and 6DOF to assess control performance, stability, and robustness.
• Work with avionics, flight sciences, mechanisms, and flight software teams to put control algorithms into real-time embedded systems.
• Support hardware-in-the-loop testing, flight tests, and post-flight reviews, and turn the findings into system-level improvements.
• Study vehicle dynamics, actuator behavior, and sensor characteristics to guide control design and tuning.
• Build tools and frameworks for designing, verifying, and validating control systems.
• Mentor junior engineers and help set best practices for GNC and control system work.
• Work closely with program leadership on technical trade-offs that support mission success.

Requirements

• A bachelor's, master's, or PhD in aerospace engineering, electrical engineering, or a related field.
• At least 5 years of experience designing, analyzing, and validating control systems for aerospace or other high-performance dynamic systems.
• A solid grounding in classical and modern control theory, including adaptive, nonlinear, and robust methods.
• Experience developing autopilot algorithms for missiles, rockets, hypersonic vehicles, or similar systems.
• Working proficiency with modeling and simulation tools such as MATLAB/Simulink or equivalent.
• Experience with 3DOF and 6DOF simulation environments and implementing real-time control.
• Familiarity with flight software integration and real-time embedded systems.
• A problem solver who does well in a fast-paced, hardware-heavy environment with a high flight cadence.

Conditions

The role may require access to classified information or restricted U.S. Government sites, systems, or information, as the company or applicable U.S. Government requirements determine. If so designated, your employment may depend on obtaining and keeping the required U.S. Government security clearance or other government authorization, and on meeting any citizenship or other eligibility requirements set by law, regulation, executive order, or government contract. You will be told if and when these requirements apply.

The role requires access to export-controlled information. Employment, or the hiring of a contractor, depends on your ability to access all applicable export-controlled information without additional export licensing from the Bureau of Industry and Security and/or the Directorate of Defense Trade Controls.

The job description does not list every task. Duties may change at any time, with or without notice.

Benefits

• The company offers a generous benefits package, with details at the bottom of its Careers page.