Flight Controls Engineer — High-Speed Autonomy

Harmattan AI; Zürich; On-site; CHF 120,000 - 180,000; Full time

Job summary

Harmattan AI seeks a Flight Control & Dynamics Engineer to own control law design and system identification for a family of airframes. The role will involve balancing classical and learning-based methods, with reinforcement-learning policies trained in simulation and flown on hardware.

Based in Lausanne, Paris, or Zurich, you will contribute to an in-house simulator, perform tests across SITL/HITL, and mentor junior engineers as the team grows.

Qualifications

• Strong academic record in aerospace, controls, robotics, or related STEM field with practical track record.
• Hands-on identification and control on multirotor or fixed-wing platforms with flight validation.
• Experience with MPC, INDI, or geometric control methods.
• Real-time embedded control implementation on constrained targets.

Responsibilities

• System Identification: design maneuvers and fit airframe models from flight data with quantified errors.
• Control Law Design & Tuning: inner rate and attitude loops with outer position loops and gain scheduling.
• Sim-to-Real: keep simulator aligned with the identified model for transfer to hardware.
• Model Consumption: translate aerodynamic derivatives into flying control.
• Flight Test & Diagnosis: verify across simulation, SITL, HITL, and logs; iterate improvements.
• Mentorship: support junior control and GNC engineers depending on seniority.

Skills

System identification

Control law design

Embedded real-time control

Reinforcement learning

Simulation & SITL/HITL

Education

Aerospace/Controls degree

Tools

MATLAB/Simulink

Hardware-in-the-loop

Job description

Harmattan AI seeks a Flight Control & Dynamics Engineer to own control law design and system identification for a family of airframes. The role will involve balancing classical and learning-based methods, with reinforcement-learning policies trained in simulation and flown on hardware.

Based in Lausanne, Paris, or Zurich, you will contribute to an in-house simulator, perform tests across SITL/HITL, and mentor junior engineers as the team grows.