Engineering Manager- Control Laws

Electra•Manassas, VA

38d•$153,000 - $185,000•Onsite

About The Position

As the Engineering Manager – Control Laws, you will serve as both the engineering lead and people manager responsible for development of the Control Laws for the EL9 Ultra Short aircraft. You will inherit a baseline concept and prototype implementation and lead your team in finalizing preliminary design, driving detailed design execution, and maturing the system to a certifiable configuration. This role requires deep expertise in flight controls and control theory as well as strong leadership capabilities to build and scale a high-performing team. You will collaborate with the flight control system team, airframe team, and flight physics team, and play a central role in bringing a novel aircraft configuration through certification.

Requirements

Bachelor's degree and 10+ years of relevant experience, or equivalent combination of education and experience.
Proven ability to lead a team and drive complex programs to execution.
Strong understanding of flight dynamics, aircraft control theory, and handling qualities.
Experience with model-based development, simulation environments, and control law verification.
Experience deploying safety-critical software to a real-time embedded platform
Experience with modeling aircraft and aircraft systems, aerodynamics, aero-elastic effects, actuators, sensors, and propulsion systems.
Strong communication and stakeholder management skills.
Ability to balance deep technical involvement with strategic leadership responsibilities.

Nice To Haves

Experience leading control law development for novel or highly integrated aircraft configurations (e.g., STOL, eVTOL, hybrid-electric aircraft).
Experience developing algorithms for fly-by-wire and/or stability augmentation systems, from initial concept through flight testing.
Familiarity with industry-standard aerospace development and certification practices (DO-178, DO-331) applicable to flight software development.
Familiarity with automated testing, CI/CD pipelines
Experience with redundant and fault-tolerant control system architectures.
Experience building, scaling, and managing high-performing engineering teams, including hiring, mentoring, and driving technical excellence and accountability.

Responsibilities

Own the end-to-end Control Law development for the EL9 aircraft, from preliminary design through certification.
Lead development and validation of the control law software, ensuring alignment across systems, performance, and structures.
Build and lead a high-performing flight controls team, providing technical direction while delivering on program cost, schedule, and milestones.
Support control law integration into the Flight Control system, including verification, and flight test
Ensure that the control laws meets performance, safety, and handling quality requirements at the aircraft level.