Senior GNC Engineer I – Mission Formulation

Rocket Lab USA; Long Beach (CA); On-site; USD 115,000 - 165,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Top-tier medical HMO/PPO + company HSА

Dental and vision coverage

3 weeks paid vacation

5 sick days per year

11 paid holidays per year

401(k) with company match

Employee stock purchase program

EV charging stations

Onsite gym

Food and drinks

Job summary

Rocket Lab USA seeks an experienced Senior GNC Engineer I for Mission Formulation in Long Beach, CA. Lead GNC design, modeling, and testing for launches, collaborating with GLS and production to bring mission concepts to life.

You will conduct trades studies, mission analyses, and hardware-in-the-loop verification, with a focus on reliable trajectory design and flight code development for high-velocity space missions.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in a relevant field and 5+ years in GNC/ADCS.
• Understanding of orbital mechanics and/or closed-loop control systems, preferably launch vehicles.
• Experience with trajectory optimization and real-time control/estimation algorithms.

Responsibilities

• GNC contact to Business Development for proposals and mission definition.
• Launch and mission operational concept development.
• Orbital and suborbital trajectory design and analysis.
• Work with external stakeholders and customers for mission-specific requirements engineering.
• Document proposed GNC solutions and participate in design reviews with customers.
• Support HITL testing to verify trajectories, GNC, and flight code performance.
• Conduct Monte Carlo simulation analyses to define and verify launch and mission operations.
• Develop and support release of flight code for pre-launch ground testing, launch, and mission operations.
• Develop tools and processes for automating common GNC modelling and analysis tasks.

Skills

GNC/ADCS

Orbital mechanics

Trajectory optimization

Real-time control/estimation

Security clearance

Education

Bachelor's degree in a relevant field

Tools

Git version control

Python

MATLAB

SciPy

C/C++

ASTOS

Job description

Rocket Lab USA seeks an experienced Senior GNC Engineer I for Mission Formulation in Long Beach, CA. Lead GNC design, modeling, and testing for launches, collaborating with GLS and production to bring mission concepts to life.

You will conduct trades studies, mission analyses, and hardware-in-the-loop verification, with a focus on reliable trajectory design and flight code development for high-velocity space missions.