Fast-Paced Spacecraft GNC Engineer — Attitude & Control

Spire; Glasgow; Hybrid; GBP 65,000 - 90,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Hybrid work model

Job summary

Spire is seeking a GNC/AOCS Engineer to manage the full lifecycle of the GNC product, collaborating with hardware, software and systems teams to design and integrate flight sensors, actuators and avionics into the spacecraft platform.

You will own qualification processes, work hands-on in lab and manufacturing environments, and contribute to fast-paced, low-cost nanosatellite system development in a hybrid office setting.

Qualifications

• Experience with flight sensors for spacecraft attitude determination/estimation.
• Experience with actuators, including actuator sizing, modelling, design and integration.
• Solid foundation in spacecraft attitude dynamics and control algorithms, with emphasis sensor ingestions and actuator command calculation.
• Experience working hands-on with HW and familiarity with hardware-in-the-loop simulation.
• Experience with Linux development environment.
• Experience working with external engineering contractors.
• Experience with Kalman filters and feedback control for attitude estimation.

Responsibilities

• Design, evaluate, select, qualify and implement flight sensors, including magnetometers, sun sensors, inertial measurement devices, Earth sensors, and/or star trackers.
• Design, evaluate, select, qualify and implement flight actuators, including magnetic torque elements, reaction wheels, and propulsion systems.
• Design, implement and maintain simulation models for GNC subcomponents in our 6-DOF simulation environment.
• Technical ownership of current and future GNC avionics peripherals, supporting troubleshooting, design and updates to improve reliability and performance.
• Working closely with cross-functional teams, including hardware, software, and systems engineers, to integrate avionics solutions into the larger platform.
• Develop component qualification and acceptance processes and be hands‑on in laboratory and manufacturing environments.

Skills

Flight sensors

Actuators design

Attitude dynamics

Hardware-in-the-loop

Linux development

External contractors

Kalman filters

Embedded C/C++

Tools

C/C++ (embedded)

Job description

Spire is seeking a GNC/AOCS Engineer to manage the full lifecycle of the GNC product, collaborating with hardware, software and systems teams to design and integrate flight sensors, actuators and avionics into the spacecraft platform.

You will own qualification processes, work hands-on in lab and manufacturing environments, and contribute to fast-paced, low-cost nanosatellite system development in a hybrid office setting.