Senior UAV GNC Engineer — Real‑Time Radar-Guided Flight

Leonardo DRS; Germantown (MD); On-site; USD 107,000 - 145,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Health insurance

401(k) retirement plan

Paid time off

Parental leave benefits

Tuition reimbursement

Professional development support

Life and disability insurance

Job summary

DRS RADA Technologies, a subsidiary of Leonardo DRS, seeks an onsite Senior Systems Engineer to join the UAV development team in Germantown, MD. You will develop algorithms to convert live radar tracks into real-time guidance for UAV control towards the target.

The role requires expertise in guidance and control, hands-on drone autopilot experience, and real-time software development in Python/C++. You will work in a 9/80 schedule with opportunities for field testing and SITL/HITL validation.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in engineering, computer science, or related technical field.
• A minimum of 5 years of engineering experience.
• Solid understanding of guidance and control fundamentals, including pursuit guidance, closing velocity/geometry, proportional navigation.
• Hands‑on experience with drone autopilot hardware and firmware.
• Strong real‑time software development in Python and/or C++, comfortable writing code that runs as a companion‑computer process (e.g., on a Raspberry Pi, Jetson, or similar) alongside a flight controller.
• Experience with SITL/HITL simulation workflows for validating flight software before live test.

Responsibilities

• Build the interface that consumes live target track data from the radar and converts it into a usable target state in the vehicle's reference frame.
• Implement a guidance law that guides the aircraft towards its target.
• Set up and run a simulation environment to test performance with simulated or replayed radar tracks.
• Support in-field flight testing

Skills

Guidance & control fundamentals

Real-time software development (Python

C++

Drone autopilot hardware & firmware

SITL/HITL simulation workflows

Education

Bachelor’s degree in engineering, computer science, or related technical field

Tools

Raspberry Pi

NVIDIA Jetson

Job description

DRS RADA Technologies, a subsidiary of Leonardo DRS, seeks an onsite Senior Systems Engineer to join the UAV development team in Germantown, MD. You will develop algorithms to convert live radar tracks into real-time guidance for UAV control towards the target.

The role requires expertise in guidance and control, hands-on drone autopilot experience, and real-time software development in Python/C++. You will work in a 9/80 schedule with opportunities for field testing and SITL/HITL validation.