Senior GNC Engineer – Exo-Atmospheric Interceptor Flight

Destinus; Hengelo; On-site; EUR 120,000 - 180,000; Full time

Job summary

Destinus seeks a senior GNC engineer to own the six-degree-of-freedom flight simulation, navigation, guidance, and control algorithms that take the interceptor from flight to terminal engagement. You will translate performance results into vehicle requirements and drive engineering decisions.

You will work hands-on with models and analyses and collaborate with a small team to integrate GNC performance into the overall interceptor design.

Qualifications

• Own complex GNC problems from mathematical models through implementation and validation.
• Think in terms of complete system performance rather than isolated algorithms.
• Challenge models, assumptions, and results until you understand what drives performance.
• Thrive in a small technical team where ownership, speed, and engineering judgement matter.

Responsibilities

• Build and own the six-degree-of-freedom flight simulation used as the reference model for vehicle performance and analysis
• Develop navigation and estimation throughout the flight, manage the error budget through handover, and develop terminal guidance for the final engagement
• Own the terminal miss budget, quantifying how sensing noise, timing, disturbances, and other uncertainties affect end-to-end accuracy
• Design and tune control algorithms across the phases of flight, assessing stability and robustness throughout the operating envelope
• Run analysis and simulation campaigns across nominal and stressing conditions, translating findings into vehicle and subsystem requirements
• Work closely with the wider engineering team to integrate GNC performance into the overall interceptor design

Skills

GNC experience

System-level thinking

Ownership mindset

Hypersonic/space domain experience

Education

BSc, MSc, or PhD in Aerospace Engineering, Control Engineering, Applied Mathematics, or a related field

Tools

MATLAB

Simulink

Python

Job description

Destinus seeks a senior GNC engineer to own the six-degree-of-freedom flight simulation, navigation, guidance, and control algorithms that take the interceptor from flight to terminal engagement. You will translate performance results into vehicle requirements and drive engineering decisions.

You will work hands-on with models and analyses and collaborate with a small team to integrate GNC performance into the overall interceptor design.