Lead GNC Engineer – Reusable Rocket Flight Dynamics

Hop Aero; California (MO); On-site; USD 150,000 - 210,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Competitive salary

Stock options

Healthcare

Direct collaboration with founders

Job summary

Hop Aero is hiring a Lead GNC Engineer to own guidance, navigation, and flight-dynamics development for its reusable rocket cargo vehicles. You will build models, simulations, algorithms, and test infrastructure spanning pad to landing, influencing vehicle architecture and flight software.

You will work across first-principles modeling, Monte Carlo analysis, controller design, actuator/sensor limits, and HIL testing, with significant ownership from day one and direct collaboration with founders

Qualifications

• 5–10 years of experience in GNC, flight dynamics or closely related fields.
• Strong understanding of high-fidelity 6-DoF simulations.
• Experience with inertial sensors, GNSS, vision, radar or altimetry for navigation.
• Proficiency in MATLAB/Simulink and Python and/or C++.
• Ability to translate simulation and analysis into real vehicle requirements and design decisions.

Responsibilities

• Serve as the responsible engineer for guidance, navigation, control, and flight dynamics.
• Build and maintain high-fidelity 6-DoF vehicle simulations from first principles.
• Model aerodynamics, propulsion, mass properties, sensors, actuators, winds, disturbances, and uncertainties.
• Develop guidance and control algorithms for ascent, coast, attitude reorientation, powered descent, and landing.
• Select and implement control architectures (PID, LQR, MPC, gain scheduling).
• Develop navigation and state-estimation systems using inertial, GNSS, vision, radar, altimetry, and other sensing modalities.
• Perform Monte Carlo analysis and define vehicle dispersions and stability margins.
• Translate simulation results into vehicle requirements across subsystems.
• Integrate GNC with flight software and embedded systems.
• Develop SIL/HIL environments to validate flight software and vehicle behavior.
• Support tethered, hover, hop, and full flight-test campaigns.
• Analyze flight data and improve simulation fidelity.
• Own GNC risks through design and test readiness reviews.
• Work in person at the team shop in Orange, CA.

Skills

Flight dynamics

GNC

6-DoF simulations

MATLAB/Simulink

Python

C++

State estimation

System integration

HIL testing

Tools

MATLAB/Simulink

Python

C++

Job description

Hop Aero is hiring a Lead GNC Engineer to own guidance, navigation, and flight-dynamics development for its reusable rocket cargo vehicles. You will build models, simulations, algorithms, and test infrastructure spanning pad to landing, influencing vehicle architecture and flight software.

You will work across first-principles modeling, Monte Carlo analysis, controller design, actuator/sensor limits, and HIL testing, with significant ownership from day one and direct collaboration with founders