Founding GNC Engineer

Approach Venture; Hawthorne (CA); On-site; USD 130,000 - 175,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Founding-stage equity

Performance-based bonuses

Medical, dental, and vision coverage

Company-provided meals

Paid time off and company holidays

Job summary

Approach Venture in Hawthorne, CA is seeking a Founding GNC Engineer to own the guidance, navigation, and control stack of a new interceptor system. You will lead state estimation, sensor fusion, and flight-control algorithms, from flight-proven foundations to evolving configurations.

Work across software, hardware, and test environments, extend simulations, develop production-quality C/C++ code, and collaborate with mechanical, electrical, and propulsion teams to mature the vehicle toward

Qualifications

• Experience with GNC software on real hardware (aircraft, missiles, drones or robotics).
• Strong state estimation and sensor fusion knowledge.
• Familiarity with Kalman filtering or nonlinear estimators.
• Background in classical/modern control theory.
• Production/embedded software in C/C++.

Responsibilities

• Own the complete GNC stack across state estimation, guidance, flight control, control allocation, and vehicle autonomy.
• Advance flight-proven algorithms to a robust system for broader targets and conditions.
• Develop target tracking, state estimation, and multi-sensor fusion.

Skills

State estimation

Sensor fusion

C/C++

Python

GNC software

Flight-test analysis

Hardware integration

Education

Bachelor’s degree or higher in Aerospace Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Robotics, Applied Mathematics

Tools

C/C++

Python

Simulation environments

Job description

Founding GNC Engineer – Own the guidance and autonomy stack for a new class of interceptor systems

Hawthorne, California | On-site

Opportunity Summary

Join a recently funded seed-stage defense technology startup developing a new generation of low-cost interceptor systems for rapidly evolving airborne threats. The company has already designed, built, and demonstrated working flight hardware with military users and is now expanding the core engineering team as it moves from successful early intercepts toward deployable systems. As the Founding GNC Engineer, you will take ownership of the vehicle’s guidance, navigation, and control architecture from its current flight-proven foundation through increasingly difficult targets, environments, and vehicle configurations. You will own the algorithms, simulation infrastructure, embedded implementation, and flight-test feedback loop while establishing the technical standards for GNC as the company grows.

About Us

We are a seed-stage defense technology company developing compact, highly maneuverable interceptor systems designed around significantly lower cost, faster iteration, and scalable manufacturing. The team is intentionally small and engineering-driven, with individual engineers owning major portions of the vehicle rather than narrow pieces of a larger program. The company has completed successful customer demonstrations, recently secured additional financing, and is now building out several founding-level technical functions.

Job Duties

• Own the complete GNC stack across state estimation, guidance, flight control, control allocation, and vehicle autonomy
• Advance existing flight-proven algorithms into a robust system capable of handling broader target sets and operating conditions
• Develop and improve target tracking, state estimation, and multi-sensor fusion
• Build algorithms that remain effective in cluttered, degraded, GPS-denied, and other challenging environments
• Design and tune intercept guidance laws for highly dynamic engagements
• Extend flight-control architecture across new vehicle configurations and increasingly demanding portions of the flight envelope
• Develop control-allocation strategies for unconventional and highly maneuverable aircraft
• Expand 6-DOF simulation, Monte Carlo testing, and hardware-in-the-loop environments for design validation and pre-flight qualification
• Develop production-quality flight software in C/C for resource-constrained embedded hardware
• Use Python and other analysis tools for simulation, modeling, test automation, and post-flight analysis
• Define sensor, actuator, compute, and airframe requirements alongside electrical, mechanical, propulsion, and embedded engineering teams
• Develop instrumentation and telemetry requirements needed to understand vehicle performance during flight
• Support range operations, integration testing, and flight-test execution
• Reconstruct flight performance and convert test results directly into improvements to algorithms and vehicle design
• Balance intercept performance against compute, sensor, actuator, manufacturing, and vehicle cost constraints
• Establish GNC development standards and technical architecture as the team expands

Qualifications

• Hands-on experience developing GNC software that has operated on real physical hardware such as aircraft, spacecraft, missiles, drones, autonomous vehicles, marine systems, or robotics
• Strong understanding of state estimation and sensor fusion
• Experience with Kalman filtering, extended or unscented Kalman filters, or other nonlinear estimation techniques
• Strong foundation in classical and modern control theory
• Experience developing and implementing guidance algorithms for dynamic systems
• Proficiency in C or C for production or embedded software development
• Strong Python skills for modeling, simulation, analysis, and tooling
• Experience developing simulation environments for dynamic systems
• Ability to move between mathematical modeling, software implementation, hardware integration, and flight-test analysisStrong technical judgment and the ability to independently own major architecture decisions
• Willingness to remain accountable for GNC performance through integration and flight testing
• Bachelor’s degree or higher in Aerospace Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Robotics, Applied Mathematics, or a related technical discipline
• Ability to work on-site in Hawthorne, California

Preferred Experience

• GNC development for counter-UAS, air-defense, missile, interceptor, or other high-dynamic aerospace systems
• Experience with highly maneuverable autonomous aircraft or UAS
• Real-time embedded software development
• Hardware-in-the-loop testing and flight-software qualification
• Monte Carlo simulation and statistical performance analysis
• GPS-denied navigation and degraded-navigation environments
• Target tracking and intercept guidance
• Experience integrating GNC with radar, RF, acoustic, optical, or other sensing systems
• Previous technical ownership within a small startup or advanced R&D team
• Experience taking a vehicle from prototype performance into a more repeatable and production-ready system

Why Join Us

• Take founding-level ownership of the GNC architecture rather than contributing to a narrow portion of an established stack
• Build on a vehicle platform that has already completed successful real-world demonstrations
• Work directly across algorithms, software, embedded hardware, vehicle integration, and flight testing
• Help establish the technical standards and engineering processes for an entire discipline
• Join a small team where engineering decisions move quickly from simulation to hardware and flight
• Opportunity to help build and eventually grow the GNC organization
• Founding-stage equity
• Performance-based bonuses for exceptional contributions
• Medical, dental, and vision coverage
• Company-provided meals during working days and launch activities
• Paid time off and company holidays

Compensation Details

$130,000 – $175,000