Flight Controls Engineer – Spacecraft Fluid Systems

Cowboy Space Corp.; Seattle (WA); On-site; USD 165,000 - 190,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Equity

Health insurance

401(k)

Paid time off

Paid holidays

Parental leave

Relocation assistance

Office lunch

Job summary

Cowboy Space Corp. is seeking a seasoned controls engineer to design and develop motor controls, automation sequences, and embedded control systems for our vehicle's fluid systems.

You will bridge electrical, mechanical, and software engineering to deliver flight-ready control solutions from concept through integration and operations. Responsibilities include designing motor control systems, automated propellant sequences, closed-loop control, sensor integration, hardware-in-the-loop tests, and

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in Mechatronics, Electrical, Mechanical, Aerospace, or related engineering field.
• 3+ years of experience in controls engineering, mechatronics, or automation for hardware systems.
• Experience with motor control (BLDC, stepper, or brushed) including drive electronics and feedback control.
• Experience with PID control loops, kalman filtering, feedforward control or other control loops and estimation algorithms.
• Proficiency in embedded programming (C/C++) for real-time control applications.
• Experience developing automated sequences or state machines for complex physical systems.
• Hands-on experience integrating sensors, actuators, and control electronics into hardware assemblies.

Responsibilities

• Design and implement motor control systems for electrically actuated valves and pumps.
• Develop automated sequences for propellant fill, drain, vent, and conditioning operations.
• Architect and implement closed-loop control for fluid system parameters across propulsion and thermal subsystems.
• Select and integrate actuators, motors, encoders, position sensors, and pressure/temperature instrumentation for fluid system control.
• Design control electronics hardware or define requirements for electrical engineering partners.
• Develop embedded firmware and real-time control software for fluid system controllers.
• Perform system modeling and simulation to validate control strategies and tune gains.
• Define and execute HIL and system-level test campaigns to verify control performance and fault response.
• Develop fault detection, isolation, and recovery (FDIR) logic for safe operations.
• Work with fluid systems, propulsion, avionics, and software teams to integrate controls into the vehicle architecture.

Skills

Controls engineering

Embedded C/C++

PID control loops

State machines

Sensor integration

Real-time systems

Education

Bachelor’s degree in Mechatronics, Electrical, Mechanical, Aerospace, or related engineering field

Tools

MATLAB/Simulink

Python

LabVIEW

Job description

Cowboy Space Corp. is seeking a seasoned controls engineer to design and develop motor controls, automation sequences, and embedded control systems for our vehicle's fluid systems.

You will bridge electrical, mechanical, and software engineering to deliver flight-ready control solutions from concept through integration and operations. Responsibilities include designing motor control systems, automated propellant sequences, closed-loop control, sensor integration, hardware-in-the-loop tests, and