Sr. GNC Orbit Controls Engineer

The role

The Sr. GNC Orbit Controls Engineer will design and implement algorithms and onboard software for orbit determination, guidance, maneuver execution, and post-maneuver analysis. This role focuses on delivering automated station-keeping and disposal for spacecraft.

What you will do

• Develop open-loop and closed-loop controllers for RAAN and LTAN control, altitude management, station-keeping, and end-of-life disposal
• Implement and maintain onboard orbit propagators, select and validate integrators, and ensure numerical consistency with ground truth
• Build and validate orbit determination pipelines using EKF or UKF with GNSS, and manage navigation readiness and covariance gating for maneuvers
• Design burns and long-arc trajectories, and optimize delta V and timelines under comm visibility, power and thermal, and operations constraints
• Plan and execute electric-propulsion long burns, including throttle profile generation, power and duty-cycle scheduling, thermal considerations, ignition and re-ignition logic, progress monitoring, an
• Coordinate burn pointing and wheel momentum strategy with ADCS
• Maintain numerically consistent MATLAB and C++ simulators, create Monte Carlo campaigns, run SIL and HIL tests, and perform post-maneuver reconstruction

Required qualifications

• Strong in orbital mechanics and simulation
• Implemented onboard propagators with perturbation models and integrators on flight targets
• Built production guidance, control, or navigation software in C and C++
• Use MATLAB and Simulink for analysis, modeling, and test-vector generation
• Designed RAAN and LTAN control strategies in open-loop and closed-loop forms and validated them in high-fidelity sims or flight
• Executed or supported real maneuvers and can reconcile plan versus truth with post-burn estimation
• Comfortable at the ADCS and propulsion interface for burn pointing and momentum management

Nice to have

• Master’s or Ph.D. in Aerospace Engineering, Control Systems, Applied Physics, or a related field
• Hands-on electric propulsion experience including thrust modeling and calibration, long-burn guidance, duty-cycle planning, and thermal constraints
• Experience with orbit propagation algorithms
• Trajectory design and optimization expertise
• Emphasis on code quality and reliability with unit and integration testing, SIL and HIL
• Experience on embedded RTOS or embedded Linux targets
• Familiarity with CCSDS ephemeris and attitude formats

Before you apply

• For U.S. Roles: applicant must be a U.S. citizen, lawful permanent resident of the United States (i.e. Green Card holder), or other protected individual as defined by 8 U.S.C. 1324b(a)(3)
• For U.K. Roles: requires Baseline Personnel Security Standard (BPSS) checks, and successful candidates must be eligible to obtain UK Security Clearance (SC)
• For Canada Roles: must obtain and hold a security clearance at the reliability status level, and pass security assessment for the Canadian Controlled Goods Program (CGP) and ITAR

About the company

Xona is the navigational intelligence company bringing real-time, centimeter-level certainty to any device, anywhere on Earth. With Pulsar, Xona will offer a future-proof, backwards-compatible global positioning system optimized for absolute precision, superior power, and robust protection.