GNC Engineer

The role

You will design guidance, navigation, and control algorithms and prove them in simulation. You will work with flight software to implement them on aircraft and support flight test using data to improve models and algorithms.

What you will do

• Design and tune flight control laws for all phases of flight, including takeoff and landing
• Develop navigation and state estimation algorithms that fuse GNSS, inertial, and air data sensors
• Develop guidance algorithms for trajectory following and autonomous takeoff and landing
• Design sensor and actuator fault detection and the control response to failures
• Build and maintain 6-DOF simulation models of the aircraft, sensors, actuators, and environment
• Analyze stability, control margins, and performance across the flight envelope, including Monte Carlo analysis
• Work with flight software to implement algorithms in flight code and verify the implementation against the design
• Verify algorithms in software-in-the-loop and hardware-in-the-loop testing
• Support flight test planning and execution, including travel to our flight test site
• Analyze flight data to validate models, identify aircraft dynamics, and refine gains

Required qualifications

• B.S. in aerospace engineering, mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, or a related field, or equivalent experience
• 2+ years designing guidance, navigation, or control algorithms for aircraft, spacecraft, or comparable vehicles
• Strong grounding in flight dynamics and classical and modern control theory
• Experience building or using 6-DOF simulation to design and verify algorithms
• Proficiency in MATLAB/Simulink or Python, and working knowledge of C++

Nice to have

• GNC experience on fixed-wing aircraft, crewed or uncrewed
• Algorithms you designed have flown on a real vehicle
• Experience with Kalman filtering and GNSS/INS integration
• Experience with autonomous takeoff and landing
• Experience with hardware-in-the-loop testing
• Experience with system identification from flight test data
• M.S. or Ph.D. in controls, dynamics, or a related field

Benefits

• Competitive salary and meaningful early-stage equity
• Relocation support if applicable
• Employee Health Benefit Plans
• 6% Retirement matching
• Flexible PTO
• Free lunches, snacks, and a stocked fridge at our offices
• AI tools and subscriptions

About the company

Poseidon Aerospace builds and operates full-size autonomous cargo aircraft. They are headquartered in the San Francisco Bay Area with locations in Washington DC, Oregon, and Maine.