Flight Controls Engineer

Pitch Aeronautics Inc.; Boise (ID); On-site; USD 90,000 - 130,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

PTO 120h

Health Insurance

Dental & Vision Insurance

Short-term Disability

Long-term Disability

HSA

FSA

Paid Holidays

Flexible Schedule

Job summary

Pitch Aeronautics Inc. in Boise, Idaho seeks a control systems engineer to design, model, and tune flight controllers (attitude, position, altitude, yaw) in MATLAB/Simulink and deploy them to PX4-based flight hardware.

You will build and maintain vehicle dynamics models, including the cyclorotor, and extend our simulation capability with Gazebo, SITL, and related tools, while mentoring technicians and coordinating with pilots to optimize flight characteristics.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Aerospace, Mechanical, or Electrical Engineering with a focus on controls.
• 3+ years designing and testing control systems for UAVs, aircraft, or robots, or a graduate degree with significant hands-on flight-test work.
• Strong MATLAB/Simulink skills, including code generation for embedded targets.
• Solid grounding in classical control: PID/PD design, feedforward, saturation and anti-windup, rate and jerk limiting, and frequency-domain analysis.
• Hands-on flight or hardware testing experience, including reading logs to diagnose problems.
• Python for data analysis and tooling; Git.
• Clear technical writing.
• Able to work on-site in Boise and travel occasionally for field tests and installs.

Responsibilities

• Design, model, and tune flight controllers in MATLAB/Simulink and deploy to PX4-based flight hardware.
• Build and maintain vehicle dynamics models, including the cyclorotor, and extend simulation capability (Gazebo, SITL).
• Write test plans and run test-stand and flight tests with the drone ops crew.
• Analyze flight logs (PX4 ULog) for tracking error, motor saturation, and vibration, and build faster analysis tools.
• Make the controller robust to estimator events such as EKF resets, IMU switches, and GPS dropouts.
• Characterize propulsion (thrust vs. RPM, motor and prop selection) and feed results back into the control code.
• Develop control for aerial manipulation: precise lateral positioning, wind rejection, and contact with the conductor during sensor install/remove.
• Configure and integrate motor controllers over DroneCAN.
• Document design decisions and changes, manage code in Git, and provide clear updates for the team.
• Mentor technicians and interns, and collaborate with pilots on flight feel.

Skills

MATLAB/Simulink

Classical control

Python for data analysis

Git

Clear technical writing

Education

Bachelor's degree in Aerospace, Mechanical, or Electrical Engineering

Master's or PhD in controls, robotics, or aerospace

Tools

PX4

ArduPilot

Gazebo

SITL

DroneCAN

Pixhawk/Cube hardware

Job description

Responsibilities

• Design, model, and tune flight controllers (attitude, position, altitude, yaw, trim) in MATLAB/Simulink and deploy them to PX4-based flight hardware.
• Build and maintain vehicle dynamics models, including the cyclorotor, and extend our simulation capability (e.g., Gazebo, SITL).
• Write test plans and run test-stand and flight tests with the drone ops crew.
• Analyze flight logs (PX4 ULog) for tracking error, motor saturation, and vibration, and build tools that make that analysis faster.
• Make the controller robust to estimator events such as EKF resets, IMU switches, and GPS dropouts.
• Characterize propulsion (thrust vs. RPM, motor and prop selection) and fold the results back into the control code.
• Develop control for aerial manipulation: precise lateral positioning, wind rejection, and contact with the conductor during sensor install and removal.
• Configure and integrate motor controllers over DroneCAN.
• Document controller design decisions and changes, manage control code in Git, and post clear updates for the team.
• Mentor technicians and interns, and work with pilots on how the aircraft feels to fly.

Minimum Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Aerospace, Mechanical, or Electrical Engineering, or a related field, with a focus on controls.
• 3+ years designing and testing control systems for UAVs, aircraft, or robots, or a graduate degree with significant hands-on flight-test work.
• Strong MATLAB/Simulink skills, including code generation for embedded targets.
• Solid grounding in classical control: PID/PD design, feedforward, saturation and anti-windup, rate and jerk limiting, and frequency-domain analysis.
• Hands-on flight or hardware testing experience, including reading logs to diagnose problems.
• Python for data analysis and tooling; Git.
• Clear technical writing.
• Able to work on-site in Boise and travel occasionally for field tests and installs.

Desired Qualifications

• Experience with PX4 or ArduPilot internals (uORB, EKF2) and Pixhawk/Cube hardware.
• Multirotor or unconventional rotorcraft dynamics; cyclorotor experience is a big plus.
• Aerial manipulation or contact control.
• State estimation and sensor fusion.
• Simulation with Gazebo, SITL, or HITL.
• CAN/DroneCAN and motor controller integration.
• FAA Part 107 certificate or piloting experience.
• Master's or PhD in controls, robotics, or aerospace.
• Fluency with AI assistants in engineering work, and enough depth to catch them when they're wrong.

Benefits

• 120 hrs of paid time off
• Health Insurance
• Dental & Vision Insurance
• Short-term disability insurance
• Long-term disability insurance
• Health Savings Account (HSA)
• Flexible Spending Account (FSA)
• Paid holidays
• Flexible work schedule

In accordance with applicable federal regulations and requirements Pitch Aeronautics does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, national origin, sex, disability, or age.