Senior GN&C Flight Controls Engineer - Spacecraft Guidance

BLUE ORIGIN; Denver (CO); On-site; USD 182,000 - 254,000; Full time

Job summary

Blue Origin is seeking a senior GN&C engineer to join the Lunar Permanence team, focusing on guidance, navigation, and control for Earth–to–Moon missions. You will derive guidance designs from mission trajectories and develop robust flight algorithms for orbital maneuvers and rendezvous operations.

You will collaborate across subsystems, prototype algorithms, run trade studies, and implement controls in Rust, C/C++, and Python, contributing to safe, reliable spaceflight and the company’s mission

Qualifications

• B.S. in Aerospace Engineering or Physics with 12+ years of experience or M.S. with 10+ years.
• Deep knowledge of astrodynamics, orbital mechanics, attitude kinematics and dynamics.
• Demonstrated subject matter expertise in spacecraft guidance, including maneuver planning, targeting, and optimization.
• Established background in GN&C algorithm development specifically for flight and attitude control using classical and modern control methods.
• Knowledgeable in frequency domain analysis techniques.
• Robust understanding of controller stability derivatives and stability margins with respect to spacecraft dynamics, flexible body dynamics, and slosh dynamics.
• Demonstrated experience with control law design for aerospace vehicles.
• Familiarity with development of requirements, interfaces, trades and analyses for aerospace GN&C applications.
• Understand the relationship between attitude control, vehicle configuration, spacecraft dynamics, actuators, sensors, and automation.
• Hands-on development with C/C++.
• Experience with collaboration tools such as Gitlab, Confluence, and JIRA.
• Strong grasp of software and data configuration management techniques and tools.
• Highly organized teammate with excellent technical written and verbal communication skills.
• Ability to earn trust, maintain positive and professional relationships, and give to a culture of safety.

Responsibilities

• Derive spacecraft guidance designs from mission level trajectory designs.
• Coordinate performance requirements between GN&C and mission planning.
• Develop and maintain both established and bespoke guidance algorithms for orbital maneuvers in various Earth and cis-lunar orbits, including RPOD maneuvers.
• Develop and sustain flight control algorithms for spacecraft operating complex missions.
• Perform trade studies for efficient and robust maneuver targeting sequences, including nominal and contingency maneuvers during RPOD.
• Perform trade studies driving maturity of detailed spacecraft and mission design.
• Collaborate with communication, propulsion, structures, fluids, and mechanisms subsystems to ensure system level design closure.
• Develop and maintain software for flight systems and simulations.
• Integrate and test software in SIL and HIL environments.
• Implement controls algorithms and subsystem component models in an integrated 6-DOF simulation environment using Rust, C/C++, and Python.
• Develop toolsets for automated requirements, configuration, and performance analyses.
• Support internal and external reviews with data products and reports.

Skills

Astrodynamics

Trajectory optimization

Control theory

Team collaboration

Communication

Problem solving

C/C++

GitLab

Confluence

JIRA

Rust

Education

B.S. in Aerospace Engineering or Physics

M.S. in relevant field

Ph.D. (preferred)

Tools

C/C++

GitLab

Confluence

JIRA

Rust

Job description

Blue Origin is seeking a senior GN&C engineer to join the Lunar Permanence team, focusing on guidance, navigation, and control for Earth–to–Moon missions. You will derive guidance designs from mission trajectories and develop robust flight algorithms for orbital maneuvers and rendezvous operations.

You will collaborate across subsystems, prototype algorithms, run trade studies, and implement controls in Rust, C/C++, and Python, contributing to safe, reliable spaceflight and the company’s mission