Founding GNC Engineer

Orbital Robotics • Seattle, WA

32d • $120,000 - $220,000

About The Position

Orbital Robotics is hiring a founding GNC Engineer who has developed software for robots and/or satellites with backgrounds in orbital mechanics, state estimation, control theory, robot motion planning, computer vision, deep learning, free-flying/free-floating space robot dynamics, and flight software development. You will join a team of world class engineers with experience deploying neural networks on real-world space robot systems.

Requirements

• Due to ITAR regulations, must be a U.S. person (citizen, permanent resident, or designated asylee/refugee).
• Bachelor's Degree (or higher) in: Aerospace Engineering, Computer Science, Physics, Robotics, or a related engineering discipline.
• Software development experience in C, C++ and Python

Nice To Haves

• Spacecraft Systems and GNC
• Space Heritage: You have written code or built hardware that has flown and operated in space.
• Orbital Mechanics: You have a deep understanding of Orbit Determination and Control, and Rendezvous and Proximity Operations (RPO).
• Safety-Critical Software: Experience developing software under rigorous standards such as DO-178C or NPR-7150.2
• Robotic Manipulation: Experience leveraging robotic arm kinematics, dynamics, and motion planning to manipulate objects with robotic arms.
• Advanced Control Methods: Practical implementation model predictive control and force-based control strategies including impedance and admittance control.
• Optimization: Proficiency with sequential convex programming, Levenberg-Marquardt, Gauss-Newton, Newton-Raphson, and Gradient Descent algorithms.
• Estimation and Mapping: Experience deploying state estimation (EKF, UKF), visual odometry, simultaneous localization and mapping, structure from motion and 3D reconstruction algorithms on hardware systems.
• Computer Vision: Experience deploying and verifying video object detection, segmentation, and pose estimation algorithms on hardware systems.
• Deep Learning: Hands-on experience with Deep Reinforcement Learning using PyTorch or alternatives (e.g. Tensorflow) and a proven track record of deploying neural networks to real-world, edge-compute systems.
• AI System Verification: Experience verifying AI controlled hardware systems such as robots or autonomous vehicles.

Responsibilities

• Architect, implement, test, and deploy GNC and robotic control algorithms from whiteboard concepts to production flight software.
• Build high-fidelity simulations that accurately model vehicle and robot dynamics, sensor noise, and environmental perturbations.
• Train, optimize, and deploy control systems and neural networks for real-world systems for trajectory execution and computer vision tasks.
• Integrate and debug GNC and AI algorithms in simulation and on hardware.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Entry Level