Lead GNC Systems Engineer for Massed Aircraft Autonomy

Executive Recruiting Group; San Diego (CA); On-site; USD 210,000 - 270,000; Full time

Job summary

Executive Recruiting Group seeks an experienced Principal GNC Systems Engineer to own the guidance, navigation, and control architecture for our aircraft. This role demands hands-on experience with 6DOF simulations involving multiple interacting aircraft and ensures GNC design supports safe, predictable behavior at scale.

You will design flight control laws, sensor fusion, state estimation, and multi-aircraft validation, collaborating with avionics and systems engineering.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Aerospace Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Electrical Engineering, or related discipline; advanced degree (M.S./Ph.D.) in a relevant GNC/controls discipline preferred.
• 15+ years of guidance, navigation, and control engineering experience for aircraft or unmanned aircraft systems.
• Demonstrated, hands-on experience developing and using 6 degree-of-freedom (6DOF) simulations involving multiple interacting aircraft (not limited to single-vehicle 6DOF simulation).
• Strong background in flight control law design, state estimation/navigation algorithms, and stability/performance analysis.
• Experience supporting flight test planning, execution, and data correlation back to simulation/analysis predictions.

Responsibilities

• Own the guidance, navigation, and control architecture for the air vehicle, including flight control laws, navigation/state estimation, and guidance/trajectory management.
• Design and develop control laws and guidance algorithms appropriate to the platform's flight envelope, autonomy level, and modular/mass‑production constraints.
• Define sensor fusion and state estimation approaches (e.g., GPS/INS integration, relative navigation between aircraft where applicable) supporting both single-vehicle flight and multi-aircraft operations.
• Partner with Avionics to ensure GNC algorithms are correctly implemented within the avionics hardware/software architecture and flight control computer constraints.
• Develop and maintain 6DOF simulation environments capable of modeling multiple aircraft operating simultaneously, including vehicle-to-vehicle interaction, relative positioning/separation, formation or collaborative behaviors, and deconfliction logic as applicable to the program's operational concept.
• Use multi-aircraft 6DOF simulation to design, test, and verify guidance and control behaviors under realistic mass-employment scenarios (e.g., multiple simultaneous launches/recoveries, coordinated maneuvering, formation-keeping, collision avoidance).
• Define simulation architecture (real-time vs. non-real-time, distributed/networked simulation across multiple simulated vehicles, hardware-in-the-loop integration points) suited to verifying multi-vehicle GNC behavior at scale.
• Validate simulation fidelity against flight test data and other independent analysis to ensure simulation results are credible for design and verification decisions.
• Perform stability and performance analysis (linear and nonlinear) for the flight control system across the platform's flight envelope and configuration variants.
• Analyze multi-aircraft interaction effects relevant to safety of flight, including separation assurance, wake/proximity effects (as applicable), and failure mode behavior in dense or coordinated operations.
• Support System Safety Analysis (SSA) and Failure Modes and Effects Analysis (FMEA) for GNC functions, including degraded-mode behavior and fail-safe/fail-operational design considerations.
• Define GNC verification and validation (V&V) approach spanning simulation, hardware-in-the-loop (HIL), ground test, and flight test.
• Define GNC-related flight test objectives, test points, and success criteria, including multi-aircraft test scenarios where applicable.
• Support flight test planning, execution, and post-test data analysis, correlating flight results back to simulation predictions to refine models and close verification gaps.
• Lead root-cause investigation of GNC-related anomalies identified in simulation, ground test, or flight test.
• Ensure GNC algorithms and control architecture are compatible with a modular, mass-producible platform, including tolerance to manufacturing variation across vehicle-to-vehicle builds and configuration variants.
• Partner with Systems Engineering and Mission Systems to ensure GNC design supports the operational employment concepts (e.g., distributed operations, coordinated/collaborative employment) that differentiate a "massed" aircraft program from a traditional single-vehicle platform.
• Serve as the senior technical authority for GNC on the program, representing the discipline at Preliminary Design Review (PDR), Critical Design Review (CDR), and government technical interchange meetings.
• Identify and manage GNC-related technical risks, including multi-aircraft interaction risk, simulation fidelity risk, and verification schedule risk.

Skills

6DOF simulations

GNC design & flight control laws

State estimation/navigation algorithms

Stability & performance analysis

Flight test planning & data analysis

Multi-aircraft/system integration

Education

Bachelor's degree in Aerospace Engineering

Advanced degree (MS/PhD) in GNC/controls preferred

Job description

Executive Recruiting Group seeks an experienced Principal GNC Systems Engineer to own the guidance, navigation, and control architecture for our aircraft. This role demands hands-on experience with 6DOF simulations involving multiple interacting aircraft and ensures GNC design supports safe, predictable behavior at scale.

You will design flight control laws, sensor fusion, state estimation, and multi-aircraft validation, collaborating with avionics and systems engineering.