Senior GNC Engineer: Spacecraft Attitude & Control

Spire; Glasgow; Hybrid; GBP 60,000 - 90,000; Full time

Job summary

Spire is seeking a GNC/AOCS Engineer to join a fast-paced, R&D-driven team. You’ll own attitude and orbit control software and hardware, work across design, manufacturing, and operations to ensure spacecraft systems meet mission requirements, and collaborate with contractors and internal teams to improve reliability and performance.

The role emphasizes hands-on testing in lab environments, flight sensor and actuator selection, and development of simulations with hardware-in-the-loop.

Qualifications

• Extensive experience with spacecraft attitude dynamics and control algorithms.
• Experience designing and implementing Kalman filters for attitude estimation.
• Experience with flight sensors for attitude determination/estimation.
• Familiarity with the Linux development environment.
• Experience working with external engineering contractors.

Responsibilities

• Provide technical ownership of spacecraft attitude and orbit control software and hardware.
• Design, model, analyze, integrate and operate attitude determination/estimation systems for small spacecraft.
• Develop and utilize spacecraft dynamics and control simulations, including hardware-in-the-loop.
• Design, evaluate, select, qualify and implement flight sensors (magnetometers, sun sensors, IMUs, IR sensors, star trackers).
• Design, evaluate, select, qualify and implement flight actuators (magnetic torque elements, reaction wheels, propulsion).
• Be hands-on in lab and manufacturing environments during testing, integration, and qualification of flight systems.
• Provide support and analysis for on-orbit operations of attitude control systems.
• Collaborate with external contractors, manufacturers, and internal staff to improve reliability, yield, performance and cost.

Skills

Attitude dynamics

Kalman filtering

Flight sensors

Linux development

Contractor collaboration

Job description

Spire is seeking a GNC/AOCS Engineer to join a fast-paced, R&D-driven team. You’ll own attitude and orbit control software and hardware, work across design, manufacturing, and operations to ensure spacecraft systems meet mission requirements, and collaborate with contractors and internal teams to improve reliability and performance.

The role emphasizes hands-on testing in lab environments, flight sensor and actuator selection, and development of simulations with hardware-in-the-loop.