Senior GNC Engineer - Spacecraft Autonomy & Flight Testing

Varda Space Industries; Hawthorne (CA); On-site; USD 169,000 - 216,000; Full time

Job summary

Varda Space Industries in Hawthorne, CA seeks a Senior Guidance, Navigation, and Controls Engineer to own the full GNC development lifecycle from design to flight testing. This role requires performing system analyses, Monte Carlo studies, and contributing to an in-house aerospace simulation framework.

The candidate will develop and maintain design documentation, support on-orbit operations, and collaborate with external partners and government agencies to ensure mission success.

Qualifications

• B.S. degree in aerospace, mechanical, electrical engineering, physics, or related field.
• 5+ proven years of experience, or PhD with 3+ years of relevant experience.
• Demonstrated knowledge in designing, modeling, testing, and flying aerospace guidance, navigation, and control systems.
• Highly adept software and model development skills, particularly in C++/Python.
• Understanding of orbital mechanics, modeling and simulation, and software development.
• Experience anchoring/fitting first principles models to test data or high-fidelity external simulations.
• Proven system engineering and configuration management skills.

Responsibilities

• ADCS hardware performance specification including sizing of reaction wheels, torque rods, IMU/GPS, and star trackers
• Design and implementation of autonomous satellite attitude control, collision avoidance, orbital rendezvous, burn planning and atmospheric re-entry algorithms
• Perform trajectory design, optimization, and dispersion analysis for the reentry of a space capsule
• Develop 6 degree of freedom vehicle simulation using C++, Python and MATLAB/Simulink
• Running Monte Carlo analysis to characterize performance of new vehicle and mission capabilities
• Integration and testing of GNC sensors, actuators, and software in hardware-in-the-loop environment
• Design and implementation of ground tooling necessary to facilitate fully automated maneuver responsibility and maneuver scheduling decisions
• Monitoring on-orbit system performance; troubleshooting where necessary
• Coordination with other spacecraft operators, 3rd party agencies, and the US government

Skills

C++/Python

Aerospace GNC design

Orbital mechanics modeling

Education

B.S. in aerospace, mechanical, electrical engineering, physics, or related field

Master's degree (preferred)

Tools

GMAT

POST2

MATLAB/Simulink

C++ toolchains

Job description

Varda Space Industries in Hawthorne, CA seeks a Senior Guidance, Navigation, and Controls Engineer to own the full GNC development lifecycle from design to flight testing. This role requires performing system analyses, Monte Carlo studies, and contributing to an in-house aerospace simulation framework.

The candidate will develop and maintain design documentation, support on-orbit operations, and collaborate with external partners and government agencies to ensure mission success.