Senior Systems Engineer – GNC & Flight Controls

Pivotal; Palo Alto (CA); On-site; USD 150,000 - 180,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Medical benefits

Dental benefits

Vision benefits

401k plan

Job summary

Pivotal is seeking a Systems Engineer – GNC & Flight Controls to translate aircraft-level needs into clear, testable requirements and to ensure verification through analysis, bench testing, SIL/HIL, and flight testing. Candidates will work with GNC, embedded software, sensors, actuators, and flight computers, leveraging Jama, MATLAB/Simulink, and C/C++/Python.

This role focuses on requirements quality, interfaces, traceability, and system-level closure, collaborating with cross-functional teams

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree or higher in a technical discipline (aerospace, electrical, mechanical, systems).
• 5+ years in complex aerospace, automotive, robotics, autonomous, or safety-critical electromechanical systems.
• Strong requirements engineering with traceability and verification.
• Experience with verification activities for hardware/software systems.
• Experience with Jama or equivalent tools (DOORS, Polarion, CodeBeamer).
• Knowledge of GNC, flight controls, vehicle dynamics, state estimation, autonomous systems.
• Proficiency in MATLAB and Simulink; understanding control models and state machines.
• Ability to read embedded software and work with C/C++, Python, Git.

Responsibilities

• Develop, decompose, allocate, and maintain aircraft and subsystem requirements for GNC, flight controls, estimation, sensing, and embedded software.
• Own verification artifacts in Jama, including traceability, baselines, change management, verification methods, and objective evidence.
• Translate aircraft-level behavior and safety needs into clear, measurable, testable requirements for GNC, embedded software, sensors, actuators, and hardware.
• Collaborate with GNC and software engineers to ensure requirements capture control-law behavior, envelopes, modes, transitions, and fault responses.
• Develop and maintain Verification & Validation plans, matrices, test requirements, procedures, and reports.
• Define verification methods including analysis, inspection, simulation, SIL, HIL, bench testing, ground and flight testing.
• Review verification results and drive requirements to formal verification closure.
• Maintain bidirectional traceability from stakeholder requirements through to test evidence.

Skills

GNC & flight controls

Requirements engineering

Verification & validation

MATLAB/Simulink

C/C++ & Python

Git

Systems Engineering

Traceability

Education

Bachelor's degree in Aerospace/Mechanical/Electrical/Systems Engineering

Tools

Jama

DOORS

Polarion

CodeBeamer

Job description

Pivotal is the leader in the emerging market of electric Vertical Takeoff and Landing (eVTOL) aircraft. We design, develop, and manufacture light eVTOL aircraft and are renowned for the BlackFly aircraft the world's first light eVTOL to fly manned missions and enter the consumer market.

Efficient, compact, and simple, Pivotal aircraft are designed for a wide range of consumer, public service, and defense applications. Our distinctive tilt-aircraft architecture and scalable platform have been flying for over 10 years. Last year we announced our next-generation aircraft, the Helix, which is rapidly progressing toward general release and scalable production in 2026.

Mobility is one of the most highly-valued areas of modern technology investments. This is the right company, in the right space, the right strategy, at the right time. If you are ready for adventure, we invite you to join our amazing team and grow with us.

About the Job

Pivotal is the leader in the emerging market of electric Vertical Takeoff and Landing (eVTOL) aircraft. We design, develop, and manufacture light eVTOL aircraft for personal, public service, and defense applications.

Pivotal is seeking a Systems Engineer – GNC & Flight Controls to support requirements development, system integration, and Verification & Validation (V&V) of our aircraft guidance, navigation, control, and flight-control systems.

This is a Systems Engineering role focused on translating aircraft-level needs into clear, testable system and subsystem requirements and ensuring those requirements are verified through analysis, simulation, bench testing, SIL/HIL, ground test, and flight test. The successful candidate will have strong Systems Engineering fundamentals along with enough technical depth in GNC, controls, embedded software, or autonomous vehicles to work directly with the engineers designing and implementing these systems. This is not primarily a modeling or simulation-development position; the focus is requirements quality, interfaces, traceability, verification, and system-level technical closure.

Responsibilities

• Develop, decompose, allocate, and maintain aircraft and subsystem requirements for Guidance, Navigation & Control (GNC), flight controls, estimation, sensing, and related embedded software functions.
• Own requirements and verification artifacts in Jama, including traceability, relationships, baselines, change management, verification methods, and objective evidence.
• Translate aircraft-level behavior and safety needs into clear, measurable, testable requirements for GNC, embedded software, sensors, actuators, and supporting hardware.
• Work directly with GNC and software engineers to ensure requirements accurately capture intended control-law behavior, operating envelopes, modes, transitions, fault responses, degraded operation, and system interfaces.
• Develop and maintain Verification & Validation plans, verification matrices, test requirements, procedures, and reports.
• Define appropriate verification methods including analysis, inspection, simulation, Software-in-the-Loop (SIL), Hardware-in-the-Loop (HIL), bench testing, ground testing, UAV flight testing, and crewed flight testing.
• Review verification results and objective evidence and drive requirements to formal verification closure.
• Maintain bidirectional traceability from stakeholder and aircraft-level requirements through subsystem/software requirements, implementation, verification activities, and test evidence.
• Support definition and management of interfaces between GNC, flight-control software, sensors, actuators, flight computers, electrical systems, aircraft dynamics, and other subsystems.
• Partner with GNC engineers to review MATLAB/Simulink models, control architectures, state machines, mode logic, and simulation results from a Systems Engineering and requirements perspective.
• Review software implementation and development artifacts sufficiently to confirm requirements intent and traceability, including working with Git-based repositories and C/C++ and Python code.
• Participate in requirements and design reviews including SRR, CoDR, PDR, CDR, TRR, and aircraft or flight-readiness reviews.
• Support system-level integration, aircraft bring-up, anomaly investigation, requirements clarification, and root-cause activities.
• Identify gaps, inconsistencies, unverified assumptions, and ambiguous requirements before they become integration or flight-test issues.
• Work cross-functionally with GNC, embedded software, electrical, aeromechanical, autonomy, flight test, safety, and program teams to resolve multidisciplinary technical issues.
• Contribute to practical Systems Engineering processes that provide appropriate rigor and traceability without creating unnecessary development overhead.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree or higher in Aerospace Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Computer Engineering, Systems Engineering, Robotics, or a related technical discipline.
• 5+ years of experience developing complex aerospace, automotive, robotics, autonomous, or other safety-critical electromechanical systems.
• Strong experience with requirements engineering, including requirements definition, decomposition, allocation, traceability, interface definition, change management, and verification closure.
• Demonstrated experience developing and executing Verification & Validation activities for complex hardware/software systems.
• Experience using Jama or a comparable requirements-management environment such as DOORS, Polarion, or Codebeamer; Jama experience strongly preferred.
• Technical experience with Guidance, Navigation & Control, flight controls, controls engineering, vehicle dynamics, state estimation, autonomous systems, or closely related systems.
• Working knowledge of MATLAB and Simulink, including the ability to understand control models, signal flows, state machines, simulation results, and model-to-requirement relationships.
• Ability to read and understand embedded software sufficiently to work effectively with implementation teams, including familiarity with C/C++, Python, Git and software development workflows.
• Experience defining verification methods and evaluating objective evidence from SIL, HIL, simulation, bench, vehicle, or flight testing.
• Strong analytical skills and the ability to translate complex system behavior into clear, testable engineering requirements.
• Strong written and verbal communication skills with demonstrated ability to work across hardware, software, controls, and test organizations.

Preferred Qualifications

• Aerospace experience involving flight-control systems, GNC, avionics, autonomous aircraft, UAVs, spacecraft, or other flight-critical systems.
• Experience with DO-178C software development and verification processes.
• Familiarity with DO-331 model-based development and verification using MATLAB/Simulink.
• Familiarity with ARP4754A/ARP4754B, ARP4761, system safety assessments, functional hazard analysis, or other structured aerospace development processes.
• Experience with ISO 26262 functional safety for automotive systems.
• Familiarity with ISO 21448 / SOTIF, Automotive SPICE, UL 4600, or other autonomous-vehicle and safety-critical development frameworks.
• Experience defining and verifying failure behavior, degraded modes, redundancy, monitoring, fault detection, and fault response.
• Experience with requirements-based testing of control laws, estimators, navigation systems, sensors, actuator-control systems, or autonomous vehicle functions.
• Experience with SIL/HIL environments, automated regression testing, test scripting, data analysis, and requirements-driven test coverage.
• Familiarity with configuration management, software baselines, release processes, CI/CD, Jira, and GitLab.
• Experience supporting ground or flight-test programs and investigating discrepancies between predicted and actual vehicle behavior.

Attributes aligned with Core Values

• Safety Above All: Demonstrates a proactive safety mindset by embedding safety into daily work, identifying and mitigating risks, encouraging open dialogue about safety concerns, and continuously improving practices and protocols.
• Customer Focus: Puts customers at the center of every action by understanding their challenges, delivering meaningful value, and supporting their success.
• Work Better Together: Seeks and values diverse perspectives, builds cross-functional relationships, and fosters trust through empathetic, fact-based communication and commitment to shared decisions.
• Be the Pilot: Drives results with clarity and purpose by focusing on what matters most, adapting to change, taking initiative, and owning outcomes.
• Embrace the Unknown: Navigates ambiguity with resilience and bold thinking, challenges the status quo, and combines innovative ideas with practical approaches to overcome obstacles and drive progress.
• Respect for People: Fosters a high-performance culture grounded in respect, professionalism, and support by balancing high expectations with a healthy, collaborative environment and being a trusted, dependable teammate.

$150,000 - $180,000 a year

Applicants must be eligible for employment in the United States and willing to work onsite at our HQ office in Palo Alto, CA.

Pivotal offers a comprehensive benefits package, including medical, dental, vision, and 401k plans.

Pivotal is an Equal Opportunity Employer. Pivotal does not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, color, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, age, non-disqualifying physical or mental disability, national origin, veteran status or any other basis covered by appropriate law. All employment is decided on the basis of qualifications, merit, and business need.