GNC Engineer I: Launch Trajectory & Mission Design

Rocket Lab Corporation; Littleton (CO); On-site; USD 81,000 - 102,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Employee Stock Purchase Program

Medical, dental, and vision insurance

401(k) retirement plan options

Paid vacation, holidays, and sick-leaf

Paid parental leave

Discounted Rocket Lab stock

Job summary

Rocket Lab Corporation in California is seeking a GNC Engineer I for Mission Formulation to design, model, analyze, and test guidance, navigation and control concepts for launches and missions. You'll work with the GLS Mission Formulation Team across multiple groups to bring new launch concepts to life.

You will perform trades studies, trajectory design, and requirements engineering, supporting HITL testing and Monte Carlo analyses, while contributing to flight code development and tooling to

Qualifications

• Understanding of orbital mechanics and/ or closed-loop control systems, preferably launch vehicles.
• Experience with trajectory optimization.
• Proven experience developing real-time control and/or estimation algorithms in autonomous vehicles, preferably launch vehicles.
• Active Secret security clearance OR Ability to obtain and maintain one.

Responsibilities

• GNC contact to Business Development for proposals and mission definition.
• Launch and mission operational concept development.
• Orbital and suborbital trajectory design and analysis.
• Work with external stakeholders and customers for mission-specific requirements engineering.
• Document proposed GNC solutions and participate in design reviews with customers.
• Support hardware-in-the-loop (HITL) testing to verify trajectories, GNC, and flight code performance.
• Conduct Monte Carlo simulation analyses to define and verify launch and mission operations.
• Develop and support release of flight code for pre-launch ground testing, launch, and mission operations.
• Develop tools and processes for automating common GNC modelling and analysis tasks.

Skills

Orbital mechanics

Trajectory optimization

Real-time control

Secret clearance

Python development

Git version control

Tools

Git

Job description

Rocket Lab Corporation in California is seeking a GNC Engineer I for Mission Formulation to design, model, analyze, and test guidance, navigation and control concepts for launches and missions. You'll work with the GLS Mission Formulation Team across multiple groups to bring new launch concepts to life.

You will perform trades studies, trajectory design, and requirements engineering, supporting HITL testing and Monte Carlo analyses, while contributing to flight code development and tooling to