GNC Orbit Controls Engineer

The role

The 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 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 orbit determination pipelines using EKF with GNSS
• Design burns and long-arc trajectories, and optimize delta V and timelines under comm visibility, power and thermal, and operations constraints
• 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

• Familiar with orbital mechanics and simulation
• Exposure with onboard propagators with perturbation models and integrators on flight targets
• GNC software experience in C++ and MATLAB for analysis, modeling, and test-vector generation
• 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

• B.S. or M.S. in Aerospace Engineering, Control Systems, Applied Physics, or a related field
• Familiar with electric propulsion including thrust modeling and calibration, long-burn guidance, duty-cycle planning, and thermal constraints
• Experience with orbit propagation algorithms
• Trajectory design and optimization expertise
• 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.