Senior GNC & Autonomy Engineer — UAV Flight Systems

Knightwerx; Scottsdale (AZ); On-site; USD 120,000 - 190,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Relocation assistance

Job summary

Knightwerx is seeking a Senior GNC/Autonomy Engineer to advance guidance, navigation, control, and autonomy for next‑gen unmanned aircraft systems. You will work across software, electrical, mechanical, and aerospace teams to design, implement, and validate flight-critical systems that influence performance, reliability, and mission success.

You will contribute to state estimation, control design, simulation, integration, and future autonomy capabilities, driving hands-on flight hardware work

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree or higher in a related technical discipline.
• 5+ years of GNC experience developing software for embedded systems.
• Experience developing embedded systems from concept through deployment.
• Strong understanding of control-loop design and state estimation.
• Embedded software development experience using C/C++.

Responsibilities

• Design, implement, and tune guidance, navigation, and control algorithms.
• Develop state estimation systems for autonomous aircraft.
• Architect and optimize vehicle and subsystem control loops.
• Build and validate vehicle models and simulation environments.
• Support software-in-the-loop and 6-DOF simulation capabilities.
• Collaborate with software, aerospace, electrical, and mechanical engineers to translate system-level requirements into flight-ready solutions.
• Evaluate sensors, computing platforms, and future navigation technologies.
• Contribute to GPS-denied navigation and VIO capabilities.
• Support aircraft integration, testing, validation, and performance improvement efforts.

Skills

GNC engineering

Embedded C/C++

State estimation

Control systems

Python

Cross-functional collaboration

Communication skills

Education

Bachelor's degree or higher

Tools

PX4

ArduPilot

VIO

GPS-denied nav

Job description

Knightwerx is seeking a Senior GNC/Autonomy Engineer to advance guidance, navigation, control, and autonomy for next‑gen unmanned aircraft systems. You will work across software, electrical, mechanical, and aerospace teams to design, implement, and validate flight-critical systems that influence performance, reliability, and mission success.

You will contribute to state estimation, control design, simulation, integration, and future autonomy capabilities, driving hands-on flight hardware work