GN&C Senior Engineer- Controls, Modeling, Simulation, and Analysis Engineer

Mclaurin Aerospace; Huntsville (AL); On-site; USD 110,000 - 150,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Competitive pay

Employer paid insurance (medical, etc)

11 paid holidays

Generous PTO

401k with employer match

Education assistance

Relocation assistance

Job summary

Mclaurin Aerospace seeks a GN&C Senior Engineer- Controls, Modeling, Simulation, and Analysis to join the ESSCA contract team at NASA Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama. The role focuses on reviewing designs, validating concepts of operations, and performing high-fidelity simulations of attitude control, orbital mechanics, and deployment scenarios.

The successful candidate will work with a diverse team, travel to TIMs as needed, and contribute to technology maturation efforts

Qualifications

• Model satellites and spacecraft dynamics in time and frequency domains.
• Design and evaluate ADCS performance with jitter and stability analyses.
• Validate orbital trajectories and attitude control through simulations.

Responsibilities

• Review mission designs and ADCS concepts; identify risks.
• Co-develop ConOps for in-space platforms and missions; define modes and transitions.
• Simulate deployer trajectories and attitude dynamics; assess stabilization times.

Skills

ADCS design

MATLAB/Simulink

C/C++

STK simulations

Orbital mechanics

Education

Bachelor's in Aerospace/Mechanical/Physics

MS/PhD preferred

Tools

Python

Simscape

Job description

Are you passionate about human space exploration, understanding the origins of the universe, and working with a passionate and diverse team to make a difference? If you are, we need you!

We need your talent, teamwork, and energy to help us achieve great things that inspire people all over the globe. We need you to bring creative ideas and diverse backgrounds to help us envision, shape, and deliver systems that will enable the exploration of space while benefiting people here on Earth. We are excited about what we do, and we need you on our team as we take on exciting challenges for NASA's pursuits in deep space exploration.

We have an exciting opportunity for a GN&C Senior Engineer- Controls, Modeling, Simulation, and Analysis Engineer to join our ESSCAcontract team at NASA Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, AL.

If selected you will:

• Review and analyze the mission design and/or the Attitude Determination and Control System (ADCS) design of Golden Dome providers, perform independent verification and/or validation of contractor results where necessary, and identify risks in the providers' proposed concepts and designs.
• Review and co-develop Concepts of Operations (ConOps) for in-space technology demonstration satellite bus contractors and proposed missions, including operational modes, mission phases, state transitions, nominal and contingency operations, and command and control architecture.
• Review, analyze, and simulate (in Systems Tool Kit (STK) or equivalent) in-space deployer platform trajectories, including orbital mechanics validation, orbital variation analysis of deployed assets, and evaluation of deployment sequencing and phasing strategies.
• Review, analyze, and independently simulate in-space deployer pointing stability performance and detumble requirements for deployed assets, including analysis of angular rates, momentum management, disturbance torques, separation dynamics, and time-to-stabilization for deployed payloads.
• Review, analyze, and independently simulate pointing accuracy and stability of multiple assets within the Golden Dome architecture, including jitter analysis, slew rate performance, target tracking capabilities, line-of-sight stability, attitude knowledge and control error budgets, and inter-satellite relative attitude coordination.
• Review and assist with technology maturation efforts through the Technology Readiness Level (TRL) scale for ultimate incorporation into Golden Dome assets, including assessment of development progress, identification of technical gaps, evaluation of test and validation approaches, and recommendations for advancement criteria.
• Attend offsite Technical Interchange Meetings (TIMs) with providers and subcontractors to review technical progress, assess design maturity, provide independent technical evaluation, and identify integration risks and mitigation strategies.
• Attend regular status meetings with NASA management and critical stakeholders to provide technical briefings, communicate risk assessments, report on provider performance, and coordinate inter-agency technical activities.

Qualifications:

• Proficiency modeling, simulating, and analyzing the performance of satellites, spacecraft, launch vehicles, and/or missiles in the time domain using parametric, Monte Carlo, and statistical techniques.
• Demonstrated ability to design ADCS systems (PID, state space, etc.) and analyze ADCS performance including jitter analysis and stability analysis in the time and frequency domain (Nicols, Bode, Nyquist, Root Locus, etc.)
• Capability to model spacecraft components/subsystems such as: mass properties, Thrust Vector Control (TVC) actuators, Reaction Control System (RCS) thrusters, reaction wheels, slosh, pogo, rigid and/or flexible body dynamics.
• Understanding of and simulation of orbital mechanics and trajectories for spacecraft and launch vehicles in Systems Tool Kit (STK) or equivalent tools.
• Programming in MATLAB, Simulink, and C/C++. This includes debugging and improving the efficiency of simulation tools.
• Experience in performing software development, verification, and validation.
• Must be detail oriented and self-motivated that can work independently taking projects from start to finish without much oversight.
• Must also be able to work collaboratively with other team members both locally and remote at other facilities or vendors.
• Strong written and oral communication, interpersonal, and problem-solving skills.
• Must be a US Citizen and have a STAR ID.

Preferred Qualifications:

• Ability to work problems from first principles, including derivation of dynamics equations of motion, including both nonlinear equations and linear state equations and integrate subsystem models into larger simulations.
• Experience performing trade studies, sensitivity, and/or Monte Carlo simulation and analyses related to the control of launch vehicles and/or spacecraft.
• Programming in other languages such as Python, Simscape Multi-body.
• Familiarity with and the ability to apply the NASA Technology Readiness Level (TRL) scale.
• Experience with creating animations/visualization from results of 3-DoF/6-DoF simulations using tools such as Unreal Engine, Systems Tool Kit (STK), etc.

Benefits

• Competitive pay
• Positive work-life balance
• 100% Employer paid insurance including: Medical, dental, vision, life insurance, accidental death and dismemberment, short-term disability, and long-term disability
• 11 paid holidays annually
• Generous PTO
• 401k after 12 months of service with employer match
• Education assistance
• Relocation assistance (if applicable)

Mclaurin is a unique organization with a special focus on combining the best features of research and industry in order to foster innovation. Our organization strongly supports research, publication, and engagement with the academic community. We encourage our employees to remain on the cutting edge of new developments in their respective disciplines.

US Citizenship and the ability to pass a comprehensive security background investigation is required.

Mclaurin is an Equal Opportunity Employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability, veteran status or other characteristics protected by law.