GNC Internship: Reentry Vehicle Guidance & Controls

Varda Space; El Segundo (CA); On-site; USD 30,000 - 41,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Health & Wellness

Paid holidays

Medical, Dental, Vision insurance

Job summary

Varda Space is offering a summer internship with the GNC team in Los Angeles, CA. The role supports end-to-end GNC performance for flight vehicles, including 6DOF simulation, control system modeling, sensor integration, and trajectory optimization.

Interns work on impactful projects in a startup aerospace setting and gain hands-on experience with real systems. Internships run May–August, full-time, on-site; candidates should have exposure to orbital mechanics and be pursuing a technical degree.

Qualifications

• Familiar with orbital mechanics, flight dynamics, trajectory design and optimization.
• Knowledge of 6DOF flight simulations and navigation solutions.
• Familiar with Monte Carlo analysis.

Responsibilities

• As part of the GNC team, own or contribute to analysis, algorithms and simulations for reentry vehicles
• Own Integration and testing of GNC sensors, actuators and software in simulation and hardware in the loop environments
• Design and implement mission critical tooling needed to facilitate automated maneuver responsibility and scheduling decisions
• Design and implementation of autonomous satellite attitude control, collision avoidance, orbital rendezvous, burn planning and atmospheric re‑entry algorithms
• Perform trajectory design, optimization, and dispersion analysis for the reentry of a space capsule

Skills

GNC internship

Orbital mechanics

6DOF

Python/C++

Tools

GMAT

POST2

MATLAB/Simulink

Orbital simulation frameworks

Job description

Varda Space is offering a summer internship with the GNC team in Los Angeles, CA. The role supports end-to-end GNC performance for flight vehicles, including 6DOF simulation, control system modeling, sensor integration, and trajectory optimization.

Interns work on impactful projects in a startup aerospace setting and gain hands-on experience with real systems. Internships run May–August, full-time, on-site; candidates should have exposure to orbital mechanics and be pursuing a technical degree.