Senior GNC Engineer - Mission Formulation

Rocket Lab; Long Beach (CA); On-site; USD 132,000 - 198,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Equity program

Stock Purchase Program

Healthcare plans

Onsite fitness centers

Employee discounts

Snacks and beverages

Stock discounts

Job summary

Rocket Lab in Long Beach, CA is seeking a Senior GNC Engineer I to design, model, analyze, and test Guidance Navigation and Control systems for launch programs. You’ll work with the GLS Mission Formulation team and interface across engineering groups to bring new launch concepts to life, including HIIT verification and mission simulations.

The role requires 5+ years in GNC/ADCS, orbital mechanics knowledge, and experience with trajectory optimization. Security clearance is required or achievable.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree and 5+ years of industry experience in GNC/ADCS.
• Understanding of orbital mechanics and closed-loop control systems, preferably launch vehicles.
• Experience with trajectory optimization.

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 hardware-in-the-loop testing to verify trajectories and flight code performance.
• Conduct Monte Carlo simulation analyses to define and verify launch and mission operations.
• Develop tools and processes for automating GNC modelling and analysis tasks.

Skills

GNC/ADCS

Trajectory optimization

Real-time control

Autonomous systems

Python development

MATLAB/SciPy

C/C++ development

Git version control

Education

Bachelor’s degree

Tools

Python

MATLAB

SciPy

C/C++

POST/ASTOS/TAOS

Job description

Rocket Lab in Long Beach, CA is seeking a Senior GNC Engineer I to design, model, analyze, and test Guidance Navigation and Control systems for launch programs. You’ll work with the GLS Mission Formulation team and interface across engineering groups to bring new launch concepts to life, including HIIT verification and mission simulations.

The role requires 5+ years in GNC/ADCS, orbital mechanics knowledge, and experience with trajectory optimization. Security clearance is required or achievable.