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Senior GNC Engineer

Senior GNC Engineer
Pleasanton, CA

A pioneering space company developing next-gen orbital mobility solutions is hiring a Senior GNC Engineer to not just design algorithms but ship them. You will implement guidance, navigation, and control algorithms for spacecraft propulsion systems, carry them through hardware-in-the-loop validation, and set the GNC engineering standards for a growing team.

What You'll Be Doing:
 

  • Design and implement GNC flight algorithms for spacecraft propulsion systems (chemical and electric), including closed loop burn execution, thrust, delta-v estimation, burn targeting, cutoff logic, and trajectory correction maneuvers.
  • Own the GNC flight code: architecture, implementation, review standards, configuration management, and verification evidence.
  • Develop and maintain 6 degrees of freedom simulation capability for burn execution and dispersion analysis across multiple programs.
  • Perform stability analysis of control loops (classical margins, disturbance and slosh interaction, actuator/sensor dynamics) and document it to flight-review standards.
  • Define hardware-in-the-loop test campaigns: what to test, pass/fail criteria, fault injection cases, and test procedures.
  • Validate flight software against simulation truth models and HIL results; close the loop between analysis, code, and test.
  • Support mission design reviews (PDR/CDR) with GNC analysis products: pointing budgets, execution-error models, and dispersion results.

Experience required:
 

  • Bachelor’s degree in aerospace engineering, mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, physics, or related field.
  • 5+ years of GNC experience on space vehicles, with demonstrated ownership of algorithms from design through implementation and test.
  • Strong proficiency in MATLAB/Simulink, including model-based design of flight algorithms.
  • Solid foundation in control theory and stability analysis (frequency- and time-domain methods, robustness margins).
  • Working knowledge of spacecraft attitude dynamics, orbital mechanics, and propulsive maneuver design.
  • Experience validating GNC software through hardware-in-the-loop testing, including defining test objectives and criteria.

Desirable experience:
 

  • Experience writing flight or embedded software in C or Rust.
  • Experience with propulsion-specific GNC: finite-burn effects, thrust/Isp uncertainty, propellant slosh, optimal jet select.
  • Experience with both chemical and electric propulsion control (long-duration low-thrust guidance a plus).
  • Experience with strapdown navigation, IMU error modeling, and sensor fusion.
  • Monte Carlo and linear covariance dispersion analysis experience.
  • GMAT, STK, FreeFlyer, or equivalent astrodynamics tooling.