Senior GNC Engineer (Guided Projectiles)

Auriga Space; Los Angeles, California (CA, MO); On-site; USD 180,000 - 240,000; Full time

Job summary

Auriga Space is seeking a Senior Guidance, Navigation, and Control (GNC) Engineer to lead the GNC discipline for guided projectiles launched from our electromagnetic launch systems. You will own the full GNC stack—from trajectory and guidance law design through navigation, state estimation, control law design, six-degree-of-freedom simulation, and flight test.

This is a founding-level role in a fast-moving startup, based onsite at our Garden Grove, CA facility.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in a related engineering or physical science field and 8+ years of applied GNC experience.
• Ownership of guidance and control design through flight, not only simulation.
• Strong foundation in classical and modern control theory, flight dynamics, and 6-DOF rigid body dynamics.

Responsibilities

• Design guidance laws for boost, midcourse, and terminal phases, and select architectures for flight projectiles.
• Develop navigation and state estimation architecture including INS/GNSS and Kalman filters.
• Build and maintain a 6-DOF simulation environment and perform robustness analyses.
• Translate GNC algorithms into flight software and support real-time, SIL, and HIL testing.
• Lead post-flight data reconstruction and contribute to model correlation and design reviews.

Skills

GNC design ownership

Six-DOF simulation

State estimation

Trajectory optimization

Control theory

Monte Carlo analysis

Autopilot design

Software-in-the-loop

Hardware-in-the-loop

Education

Bachelor's degree in Aerospace/Mechanical/EE/Applied Math/Physics

Master's or PhD (preferred)

Tools

6-DOF simulation software

Missile DATCOM

CFD

Wind tunnel testing

Real-time flight software

HIL benches

Job description

This is the opportunity of a lifetime. Auriga Space is revolutionizing propulsion by developing electromagnetic launch systems that offer significant advantages in launch cost, reliability, frequency, and responsiveness compared to rockets.

Role Summary:

Auriga is seeking a Senior Guidance, Navigation, and Control (GNC) Engineer to lead the GNC discipline for guided projectiles launched from our electromagnetic launch systems. You will own the full GNC stack, from trajectory and guidance law design through navigation and state estimation, control law design, six degree of freedom simulation, and flight test. This is a founding-level technical role. You will set the GNC architecture, choose the tools, define sensor and actuator requirements, and work directly with structures, avionics, and test to turn analysis into flight hardware. The ideal candidate has taken guided flight vehicles from concept through live fire, is comfortable owning a discipline rather than a task, and thrives in a fast-paced start-up environment. This role is based onsite at our Garden Grove, CA facility.

Key Responsibilities:

Guidance and Control Design

• Design and analyze guidance laws across boost, midcourse, and terminal phases, including proportional navigation and other terminal homing approaches.
• Design control laws and autopilots for aerodynamically controlled projectiles, including roll, pitch, and yaw channels, and select appropriate architectures for spin-stabilized or roll-stabilized configurations.
• Define control authority, actuator bandwidth, and control surface sizing requirements in partnership with the mechanical and avionics teams.
• Develop trajectory shaping and energy management approaches that maximize range, accuracy, and terminal performance.

Navigation and State Estimation

• Design the navigation and state estimation architecture, including inertial navigation, GNSS-aided INS, and Kalman filter implementations.
• Define sensor requirements and lead trade studies and selection for IMUs, GNSS receivers, and any terminal sensing or seeker.
• Develop approaches for degraded, contested, and GNSS-denied navigation, including alternative aiding sources and anti-jam considerations.
• Characterize and model sensor error, initialization, and alignment behavior under a high-acceleration launch environment.

Modeling, Simulation, and Analysis

• Build, maintain, and own the six degree of freedom simulation environment, including vehicle dynamics, aerodynamic tables, actuator and sensor models, and environmental models.
• Perform stability, robustness, and margin analysis across the full flight envelope and across manufacturing, environmental, and threat variation.

Implementation and Flight Test

• Translate GNC algorithms into flight software in partnership with the avionics and software team, including real-time implementation, timing, fixed point or floating point, and numerical robustness considerations.
• Build and run software-in-the-loop and hardware-in-the-loop test environments to verify GNC performance before flight.
• Support ground test and flight test campaigns, including test planning, instrumentation and telemetry requirements, and on-console support during test.
• Lead post-flight data reconstruction and model correlation, and feed results back into the simulation and the design.
• Own GNC requirements, analysis reports, and design review material, and mentor junior engineers as the team grows.

Basic Qualifications:

• Bachelor's degree in Aerospace Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Applied Mathematics, Physics, or a related field.
• 8+ years of applied GNC experience on missiles, guided projectiles, munitions, launch vehicles, or other guided flight systems.
• Demonstrated ownership of guidance and control law design through to flight, not simulation work alone.
• Strong foundation in classical and modern control theory, flight dynamics, and six degree of freedom rigid body dynamics.
• Experience building and maintaining 6-DOF simulations and running Monte Carlo dispersion analysis.
• Experience defining sensor and actuator requirements and working with IMU, GNSS, and electromechanical actuation hardware.
• Excellent written and verbal communication, and the ability to present and defend analysis in a design review.
• Comfortable working hands-on in a fast-moving start-up environment where requirements evolve and information is incomplete.

Desired Qualifications:

• Direct experience with gun-launched or other high-acceleration-launched guided projectiles, including setback survivability, in-bore dynamics, and post-launch initialization and alignment.
• Experience with spinning or roll-stabilized airframes, including Magnus effects, roll rate management, and roll-decoupled or despun sections.
• Experience with terminal seekers such as RF, semi-active laser, or imaging infrared, and the associated terminal homing guidance.
• Experience with GNSS-denied or contested navigation and anti-jam techniques.
• Aerodynamic characterization experience using Missile DATCOM, CFD, or wind tunnel testing.
• Experience with hardware-in-the-loop benches and real-time simulation targets.
• Experience developing or verifying embedded flight software, including practices appropriate to flight-critical code.
• Flight or range test experience, including telemetry, instrumentation, and post-flight reconstruction.
• Familiarity with air and missile defense or counter-UAS engagement problems, including intercept geometry and endgame performance.
• Master's or PhD in a related field.
• Active or prior U.S. security clearance, or the ability to obtain one.
• Passion for advanced manufacturing and next-generation space and defense systems.

To conform to U.S. Government export regulations, applicant must be a (i) U.S. citizen or national, (ii) U.S. lawful, permanent resident (aka green card holder), (iii) Refugee under 8 U.S.C. § 1157, or (iv) Asylee under 8 U.S.C. § 1158, or be eligible to obtain the required authorizations from the U.S. Department of State. More details on ITAR are available on the U.S. Department of State's Directorate of Defense Trade Controls website.

Equal Opportunity Employer:

Auriga provides equal employment opportunities to all employees and applicants for employment and prohibits discrimination and harassment of any type without regard to race, color, religion, age, sex, national origin, disability status, genetics, protected veteran status, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, or any other characteristic protected by federal, state or local laws. This policy applies to all terms and conditions of employment at Auriga, including recruiting, hiring, placement, promotion, termination, layoff, recall, transfer, leaves of absence, compensation and training.