Space Navigation & Sensor Fusion Engineer (GNC)

K2 Space Corporation; Los Angeles (CA); On-site; USD 110,000 - 200,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Paid time off

Medical/dental/vision coverage

Life insurance

Parental leave

Job summary

K2 Space seeks a highly capable navigation, estimation, and sensor engineer to own the onboard GNC chain from sensors to flight software. This role blends hardware and software, coordinating with Avionics, flight software, and Test teams on GNSS drivers and validation.

In the first six months you will design and validate software drivers for GNSS receivers and build testing akin to link-budget validation. In year one you support multiple launches and on-orbit navigation performance analysis,

Qualifications

• Master's degree or higher in aerospace, electrical, or mechanical engineering, physics, or a related field.
• 2+ years of experience in navigation, estimation, or sensor engineering for spacecraft.
• Strong grasp of estimation theory, with hands-on experience implementing filters for real time systems
• Hands-on experience with navigation hardware in the lab
• Experience with Python, Julia, C/C++, or Rust for algorithm development, implementation, hardware test, and simulation

Responsibilities

• Design, implement, and verify onboard estimation algorithms for orbit and attitude determination (EKF/MEKF/UKF, batch estimators, sensor fusion)
• Develop high-altitude GNSS navigation capability for MEO and GEO, including sidelobe and weak-signal tracking, receiver selection, and onboard orbit filtering
• Improve measurement and system timing accuracy from sensor output to GNC ingestion, ensuring low-latency and low-jitter navigation
• Develop and run GNC sensor calibration on the ground and on orbit.
• Select, specify, and integrate navigation sensors (GNSS receivers, IMUs, magnetometers, star trackers) in fault tolerant architectures to support robust next generation capabilities
• Build sensor models and estimation components in our simulation framework, and bring algorithms from prototype into production flight software
• Support on-orbit commissioning and navigation performance analysis during mission operations
• Defining pass/fail performance criteria for GNC hardware during acceptance testing and supporting investigation of out-of-spec hardware
• Shape the future of the GNC team by recruiting, interviewing, and mentoring engineers

Skills

Estimation theory

Navigation hardware experience

Real-time filters

Education

Master's degree or higher in aerospace, electrical, or mechanical engineering, physics, or a related field

Tools

Python

Julia

C/C++

Rust

Job description

K2 Space seeks a highly capable navigation, estimation, and sensor engineer to own the onboard GNC chain from sensors to flight software. This role blends hardware and software, coordinating with Avionics, flight software, and Test teams on GNSS drivers and validation.

In the first six months you will design and validate software drivers for GNSS receivers and build testing akin to link-budget validation. In year one you support multiple launches and on-orbit navigation performance analysis,