GNC Navigation Engineer II: Real-Time Estimation

Pivotal; Palo Alto (CA); On-site; USD 139,000 - 160,000; Full time

Job summary

Pivotal seeks a GNC Engineer II focused on navigation to design, implement, and verify state estimation and sensor fusion algorithms for its eVTOL platforms. You will work across the full development lifecycle, from MATLAB/Simulink prototyping to real-time deployment on embedded hardware, collaborating with avionics, firmware, and test teams.

The ideal candidate has a strong Estimation theory background, hands-on experience with real sensor data, and proficiency in MATLAB, Simulink, Python, and

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in Aerospace Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Electrical Engineering, or a related technical field.
• 2+ years of industry experience in GNC, navigation, or state estimation, or a Master’s or PhD with research focused on estimation or sensor fusion.
• Strong foundation in estimation theory, including Kalman filtering (linear, extended, error-state), complementary filtering, and probability and stochastic processes.
• Hands-on experience designing and tuning an estimator on real sensor data such as IMU, GNSS, magnetometer, or barometer, whether through industry, research, student teams, or personal projects.

Responsibilities

• Design, implement, and tune state estimation algorithms, such as extended and error-state Kalman filters and complementary filters, to estimate attitude, heading, position, velocity, AGL, and air-data states.
• Develop sensor fusion architectures that combine IMU, GNSS, magnetometer, barometric and air-data sensors, and other aiding sources such as radar or lidar altimeters and vision.
• Develop sensor fault detection and isolation, integrity monitoring, and redundancy management, and define how navigation should behave in degraded modes.
• Analyze observability, filter consistency, and navigation error budgets to inform requirements and design trade-offs.
• Develop sensor error models (bias, scale factor, misalignment, noise, latency) and characterize sensors through bench testing and methods such as Allan variance.
• Support sensor selection, mounting, alignment, and calibration, including magnetometer hard- and soft-iron calibration and IMU alignment.
• Work with the firmware and avionics teams on sensor interfaces, timing and synchronization, and integration onto the aircraft.
• Implement navigation algorithms in MATLAB and Simulink so they are ready for code generation and real-time execution on embedded flight hardware.
• Develop and maintain navigation and sensor models within the GNC simulation environment.
• Take part in design and code reviews, version control, and continuous integration practices.
• Define and verify navigation requirements through unit tests, Monte Carlo simulation, software- and hardware-in-the-loop testing, and ground and flight tests.
• Plan, support, and analyze flight tests, using flight data to assess navigation performance, tune filters, and drive improvements.
• Document designs, analyses, and test results to support verification and certification activities.

Skills

GNC & navigation

Estimation theory

Kalman filtering

Python

C/C++

MATLAB

Simulink

Analytical thinking

Communication

Education

Bachelor’s degree in Aerospace, Mechanical or Electrical Engineering

Tools

Git

CI/CD

Embedded flight hardware

MATLAB/Simulink

Job description

Pivotal seeks a GNC Engineer II focused on navigation to design, implement, and verify state estimation and sensor fusion algorithms for its eVTOL platforms. You will work across the full development lifecycle, from MATLAB/Simulink prototyping to real-time deployment on embedded hardware, collaborating with avionics, firmware, and test teams.

The ideal candidate has a strong Estimation theory background, hands-on experience with real sensor data, and proficiency in MATLAB, Simulink, Python, and