Lead, GPS-Denied State Estimation & Navigation

Alpine Solutions Group; Torrance (CA); On-site; USD 180,000 - 240,000; Full time

Job summary

Alpine Solutions Group seeks a State Estimation and Navigation Lead to manage a small team responsible for onboard vehicle state, target state, and uncertainty, while remaining hands-on in the estimator. You will deliver GPS-denied navigation across multiple platforms in active development and define estimation performance metrics for the autonomy stack.

You will own the technical roadmap for onboard state estimation, calibrate uncertainty, and collaborate with perception, guidance, control, and

Qualifications

• 5+ years of professional experience in state estimation, navigation, or GNC with leadership experience
• Ownership of a state estimation or navigation system from architecture to deployment on production hardware
• Deep expertise in estimation theory and its practical application (EKF/UKF/invariant filters)
• Hands-on experience fusing IMU, camera, GNSS, and range/altimetry sensing with calibration and synchronization
• Experience delivering navigation performance in GPS-denied or GPS-degraded environments
• Strong C++ and Python with real-time embedded compute, memory, and latency constraints
• Track record of quantitative validation: accuracy, drift, and consistency metrics with simulation/ HIL/ flight-test workflows
• Experience debugging estimation failures on real hardware and creating reproducible regression tests
• Strong foundations in linear algebra, probability, and numerical optimization

Responsibilities

• Own the technical roadmap for onboard state estimation and navigation, and the interface to guidance and control
• Architect, implement, and field GPS-denied and GPS-degraded navigation with fused sensing on embedded compute
• Lead the development of visual inertial and terrain relative navigation from prototype to fielded capability
• Define and enforce the standard for characterizing estimation uncertainty and autonomy reliability across validation workflows
• Hire, manage, and mentor state estimation and navigation engineers, setting the technical bar
• Partner with perception, guidance and control, platform software, and hardware teams on sensing, compute, latency, and calibration requirements; support flight test and field deployment

Skills

State estimation

Navigation

Sensor fusion

GNC

C++

Python

Real-time algorithms

Embedded compute

Linear algebra

Probability

Numerical optimization

Team leadership

Regression testing

Job description

Alpine Solutions Group seeks a State Estimation and Navigation Lead to manage a small team responsible for onboard vehicle state, target state, and uncertainty, while remaining hands-on in the estimator. You will deliver GPS-denied navigation across multiple platforms in active development and define estimation performance metrics for the autonomy stack.

You will own the technical roadmap for onboard state estimation, calibrate uncertainty, and collaborate with perception, guidance, control, and