Senior Principal GNC Engineer – Autonomous Aircraft Control

Northrop Grumman Corp.; El Segundo (CA); On-site; USD 114,000 - 213,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Health insurance

Savings plan

Paid time off

Job summary

Northrop Grumman Aeronautics Systems seeks a Principal or Sr. Principal Guidance Navigation Controls (GNC) Engineer to advance flight control algorithms for unmanned and manned air vehicles in the South Bay Vehicle Engineering group, located in El Segundo, CA.

The role offers challenging development in avionics, guidance, navigation, and control systems with collaboration across levels and a pathway to Senior leadership.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in STEM with 5+ years of relevant experience or Master’s with 3+ years or PhD with 1+ year.
• Experience with fixed-wing aircraft flight dynamics.
• Experience using linear control principles to design feedback systems.
• Experience analyzing non-linear simulations of aircraft closed-loop dynamics.
• Working knowledge of autopilot functions.
• Working knowledge of outer loop control law performance requirements.
• Experience using MATLAB to create, process, analyze, and visually represent data.
• Experience using Simulink to model dynamic systems.
• Familiarity with autocoding Simulink models.
• Working knowledge of logic, modes, and states for autonomous aircraft.
• Familiarity with C/C++ programming.
• Familiarity with Python programming.
• Ability to obtain and maintain US Government clearance and SAP timelines.

Responsibilities

• Support R&D of flight control algorithms for air vehicles.
• Design, implement, verify, and test guidance, navigation and control software and simulations.
• Develop control laws to meet air vehicle performance and stability requirements.
• Design outer and inner loop control laws and autonomy functions.
• Develop dynamic models and integrate into simulations and hardware-in-the-loop environments.
• Perform performance and handling qualities analyses.
• Support flight test activities and analyze test data.
• Develop analyses for design reviews (PDR, CDR).

Skills

Fixed-wing flight dynamics

Linear control principles

Non-linear simulations

Autopilot functions

Outer loop control

C/C++ programming

Python programming

Autonomy algorithms

Logic, modes, and states

US clearance eligibility

Education

Bachelor's degree in STEM with 5+ years of relevant experience

Master’s degree in STEM with 3+ years of relevant experience

PhD in STEM with 1+ year of relevant experience

Tools

MATLAB

Simulink

Autocoding Simulink models

Lua Script programming

Job description

Northrop Grumman Aeronautics Systems seeks a Principal or Sr. Principal Guidance Navigation Controls (GNC) Engineer to advance flight control algorithms for unmanned and manned air vehicles in the South Bay Vehicle Engineering group, located in El Segundo, CA.

The role offers challenging development in avionics, guidance, navigation, and control systems with collaboration across levels and a pathway to Senior leadership.