GNC Engineer I: Mission Formulation & Trajectory Design

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

Job summary

Rocket Lab USA is seeking a GNC Engineer I - Mission Formulation to support Guidance, Navigation and Control design for launches and missions. You will perform trajectory analyses, develop concepts, and collaborate with external stakeholders to define mission requirements and reviews.

You will also work on HITL testing, Monte Carlo analyses, and flight-code release for pre-launch operations, while advancing GNC modelling tools and automation.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Engineering.
• 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

Security clearance

Python development

C/C++

Git version control

MATLAB

SciPy

POST/ASTOS/TAOS

Education

Bachelor's degree in Engineering

Tools

Git

MATLAB

Python

C/C++

POST/ASTOS/TAOS

SciPy

Job description

Rocket Lab USA is seeking a GNC Engineer I - Mission Formulation to support Guidance, Navigation and Control design for launches and missions. You will perform trajectory analyses, develop concepts, and collaborate with external stakeholders to define mission requirements and reviews.

You will also work on HITL testing, Monte Carlo analyses, and flight-code release for pre-launch operations, while advancing GNC modelling tools and automation.