Staff GNC Engineer – Flight Controls

Pivotal; Palo Alto (CA); On-site; USD 176,000 - 200,000; Full time

Job summary

Pivotal is seeking a Staff GNC Engineer to lead flight control law work for VTOL/rotorcraft. You will own inner/outer loop architectures, define design criteria, and guide verification from simulation to flight test.

You will mentor engineers and work with navigation, firmware, aeromechanical, systems engineering, safety, and flight test teams to deliver robust control solutions. Ideal candidates have extensive flight control experience, strong MATLAB/Simulink skills, and hands-on flight test

Qualifications

• 8+ years in flight controls or GNC with a relevant degree
• Experience taking flight control laws from design to flight test
• Deep understanding of aircraft flight dynamics (modeling, linearization, stability)
• Strong command of classical and modern control theory (frequency-domain, state-space, robustness)
• Experience designing/tuning multi-loop architectures (e.g., cascaded loops, model following)
• Experience with frequency-domain analysis and system identification from test data
• Proficiency in MATLAB/Simulink for control design, modeling, and simulation
• Proficiency in Python or MATLAB for flight data analysis and in C/C++ for app code
• Strong communication skills for presenting trade-offs and recommendations to engineers/leadership

Responsibilities

• Own the inner- and outer-loop flight control law architectures, including gain scheduling, control modes, and envelope protection
• Define criteria to evaluate control designs (stability margins, bandwidth, disturbance rejection, handling)
• Design/tune control laws across flight envelope, including fault conditions, using frequency-domain methods and CONDUIT
• Plan/lead system identification from flight/ground data using CIFER
• Use results to validate/improve flight dynamics models and simulation environment
• Define flight control requirements with systems engineering and safety teams
• Set verification strategy (linear analysis, Monte Carlo, worst-case, HIL, flight test)
• Plan/lead/analyze flight tests and resolve simulation-test gaps
• Mentor engineers; advise leadership on actuator/sensor/aircraft trade-offs

Skills

Flight control

System identification

Control theory

MATLAB/Simulink

Python/C++

Flight testing

Communication

Education

Bachelor's in AA/AE/EE or related field

Tools

CONDUIT

CIFER

Git

CI/CD

Job description

About the Role

The GNC team at Pivotal develops the flight control and navigation algorithms that let our aircraft fly safely and precisely, including on the Helix family of aircraft. We are looking for a Staff GNC Engineer to lead our flight control law work: owning the control law architecture and its design, tuning, and verification from simulation through flight test.

You will set the technical direction for how our aircraft are controlled in hover, transition, and forward flight. That includes defining the control law architecture and design criteria, using system identification and flight data to improve our models, and making sure the control laws meet stability, performance, and handling qualities requirements. You will mentor engineers on the team and work closely with the navigation, firmware, aeromechanical, systems engineering, safety, and flight test teams.

The ideal candidate has a track record of taking flight control laws from design to flight on real aircraft, ideally VTOL, rotorcraft, or eVTOL, and the judgment to make sound design and flight test decisions with incomplete information.

Responsibilities

Control Law Architecture & Design

• Own the architecture of the inner- and outer-loop flight control laws, including control modes, gain scheduling, control allocation, and envelope protection.
• Define the criteria used to evaluate control law designs and trade-offs, such as stability margins, bandwidth, disturbance rejection, handling qualities, and robustness.
• Design and tune control laws across the flight envelope, including degraded and failure conditions such as motor failures, using frequency-domain methods and tools such as CONDUIT.

Flight Dynamics & System Identification

• Plan and lead system identification of the aircraft and its subsystems from flight and ground test data, using frequency-domain methods such as CIFER.
• Use identification results and flight data to validate and improve the flight dynamics models and simulation environment the team relies on.

Requirements, Verification & Flight Test

• Define flight control requirements, including stability, performance, and handling qualities requirements, with the systems engineering and safety teams.
• Set the verification strategy for the control laws, including linear analysis, Monte Carlo and worst-case simulation, hardware-in-the-loop testing, and flight test.
• Plan, lead, and analyze flight tests with the flight test team, making risk-informed decisions between flights and resolving differences between simulation and flight.

Technical Leadership

• Mentor engineers on the team, review their designs and analyses, and raise the bar for control law development.
• Advise program leadership and other teams on decisions that affect flight controls, such as actuator, sensor, and aircraft configuration trade-offs.

Education

• Bachelor’s degree in Aerospace Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Electrical Engineering, or a related technical field.

Experience

• 8+ years of industry experience in flight controls or GNC with a Bachelor’s degree, 6+ years with a Master’s degree, or 3+ years with a PhD, or equivalent experience.
• Demonstrated experience taking flight control laws from design through flight test or piloted simulation evaluation, including owning key design decisions.
• Deep understanding of aircraft flight dynamics, including modeling, linearization, and dynamic stability modes.
• Strong command of classical and modern control theory, including frequency-domain analysis, state-space methods, and robustness analysis.
• Experience designing and tuning multi-loop flight control architectures, such as cascaded loops, explicit model following, or dynamic inversion, with gain scheduling across a flight envelope.
• Experience with frequency-domain analysis and system identification of aircraft or rotorcraft from test data.
• Experience planning and analyzing flight tests or piloted simulation evaluations to assess control law performance and handling qualities.
• Proficiency in MATLAB and Simulink for control design, modeling, and simulation.
• Proficiency in Python or MATLAB for flight data analysis, and in C or C++ for writing application-level code.
• Strong communication skills, including presenting technical trade-offs and recommendations to engineers and leadership.

Preferred Qualifications

• Master’s degree or PhD in Aerospace Engineering or a related field, with a focus on flight dynamics or flight controls.
• Experience with eVTOL, tiltrotor, rotorcraft, or other VTOL aircraft, including control through the transition between hover and forward flight.
• Experience using CONDUIT and CIFER.
• Experience with handling qualities specifications and evaluations, such as ADS-33, MIL-DTL-32742, and MIL-STD-1797, including piloted simulation evaluations.
• Experience with envelope protection, control allocation for over-actuated aircraft, and failure accommodation.
• Experience developing flight controls for both piloted and autonomous aircraft.
• Experience flight testing control laws on full-scale or subscale aircraft.
• Experience with Git, continuous integration, and agile development workflows, including automated simulation-based regression testing.
• Experience using AI-assisted development tools, such as Claude, to speed up algorithm development, coding, and data analysis.
• Experience developing flight control software under DO-178C and DO-331, and with ARP4754A and ARP4761 processes.
• Experience with hardware-in-the-loop and integrated simulation test environments.
• Piloting or RC piloting experience, or a strong interest in aviation.

$176,000 - $200,000 a year