Senior Spacecraft Navigation Lead for Lunar Missions

Red Canyon Engineering & Software; Westminster (CO); On-site; USD 132,000 - 175,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Signing bonus

Quarterly performance bonuses

Health insurance and 401K plan

Flexible time off policy

Relocation assistance

Job summary

Red Canyon Engineering & Software in Westminster, Colorado seeks a Senior Navigation Engineer to lead spacecraft navigation across all mission phases, from formulation to operations, and to own navigation products for major reviews.

Candidates will develop and validate Kalman filter configurations for complex regimes, mentor junior engineers, interact with vendors, and support proposals and IRAD efforts. This US-person requirement notes on-site work in Westminster and TS/SCI preferred.

Qualifications

• 8–12 years of professional experience in spacecraft navigation, orbit determination, or closely related flight dynamics roles.
• Bachelor’s degree in Aerospace Engineering, Systems Engineering, or related field.
• Demonstrated leadership of OD campaigns or major navigation tasks, including filter setup, force models, and tracking strategies.
• Proven ability to design and adapt Kalman filters for new dynamical and tracking regimes, including dynamic, bias, stochastic, and consider parameters.
• Significant experience with navigation/astrodynamics tools (e.g., MONTE, FreeFlyer, ODTK, GMAT, STK) in flight or flight-like applications.
• Strong navigation operations experience, including nav operator training/certification or equivalent console and contingency support.
• Ability to act as primary navigation point of contact, interacting with vendors and partners, driving requirements, owning verification/validation, and conducting system-level trades.
• Excellent written and verbal communication, with a record of leading technical presentations and navigation analysis reports.
• US. Person (U.S. citizen or lawful permanent resident), able to work on-site in Westminster, CO.

Responsibilities

• Lead spacecraft navigation for all mission phases, including formulation, tracking architecture development, estimation approach, and operations.
• Develop and validate advanced Kalman filter configurations for complex regimes (multi-body, low-thrust, weak observability).
• Serve as primary navigation lead for flight operations operations prep, including console support, real-time OD, and anomaly response.
• Architect navigation solutions that account for mission design, GNC, communications, and ground system constraints.
• Own navigation products for major reviews, clearly communicating performance, trades, and risks.
• Mentor junior navigation engineers in OD, filter design, measurement modeling, and operations best practices.
• Drive improvements to navigation procedures, tool setups, and standard operating practices.
• Support BD and IRAD by shaping navigation concepts, contributing to proposals, and defining new mission and capability concepts.

Skills

Kalman filters

Navigation

Leadership

System trades

Communication

Education

Bachelor's degree in Aerospace or Systems Engineering

Tools

MONTE

FreeFlyer

ODTK

GMAT

STK

Job description

Red Canyon Engineering & Software in Westminster, Colorado seeks a Senior Navigation Engineer to lead spacecraft navigation across all mission phases, from formulation to operations, and to own navigation products for major reviews.

Candidates will develop and validate Kalman filter configurations for complex regimes, mentor junior engineers, interact with vendors, and support proposals and IRAD efforts. This US-person requirement notes on-site work in Westminster and TS/SCI preferred.