GN&C Navigation Lead - ACE

BLUE ORIGIN • Huntsville, AL

1d

About The Position

At Blue Origin, we envision millions of people living and working in space for the benefit of Earth. We’re working to develop reusable, safe, and low-cost space vehicles and systems within a culture of safety, collaboration, and inclusion. Join our team of problem solvers as we add new chapters to the history of spaceflight! This role is part of Advanced Concepts and Enterprise Engineering (ACE), supporting Blue Origin’s mission of millions of people living and working in space for the benefit of Earth. The team fosters innovation and drives engineering workflows of the future, shared solutions and standards, simplicity and lower costs, and manufacturable design. The Lead Navigation Engineer serves as the technical authority for spacecraft navigation system design, analysis, and integration across all mission phases. This role is responsible for driving requirements development, subsystem integration, and verification closure. The Lead Navigation Engineer coordinates across disciplines including avionics, flight software, SE&I, ground systems, and mission operations to deliver a robust, fault-tolerant navigation solution that satisfies mission performance and reliability requirements. The ideal candidate brings deep expertise in estimation theory and inertial navigation, a systems-level perspective on how navigation integrates with the broader spacecraft and mission architecture, and the leadership skills to guide a team through the full development lifecycle. Special Mentions: Relocation provided Travel expected up to 15% of the time

Requirements

• Minimum of a B.S. degree in aerospace engineering, physics, applied mathematics, electrical engineering, mechanical engineering, or other relevant engineering field.
• 12+ years of experience in spacecraft or launch vehicle navigation engineering, with demonstrated progression in technical scope and responsibility.
• Experience with sensor fusion architectures that integrate measurement sources into a coherent navigation solution with well-characterized performance bounds.
• Expert-level understanding of estimation theory, including Kalman filtering, covariance analysis, and filter stability.
• Deep knowledge of inertial navigation principles, including IMU error modeling, alignment, and calibration.
• Demonstrated experience with navigation sensor selection, specification development, and vendor evaluation.
• Proven ability to develop and close navigation system requirements within a formal SE&I framework.
• Experience integrating navigation systems with spacecraft avionics, flight software, and ground systems.
• Strong software and modeling skills in one or more of MATLAB, Python, C/C++, or Rust.

Nice To Haves

• M.S. or Ph.D. in aerospace engineering, applied mathematics, physics, or another relevant STEM field.
• Experience as a navigation technical lead or subsystem lead on a spacecraft or launch vehicle program.
• Experience with rendezvous, proximity operations, and docking (RPOD) navigation system design.
• Experience with GNSS receiver integration and processing for spacecraft applications.
• Experience with simulation development in Trick/JEOD, or equivalent high-fidelity frameworks.
• Experience supporting formal qualification testing, certification documentation, or mission readiness activities.
• Knowledge of software configuration control, quality assurance processes, and flight software development standards.

Responsibilities

• Define and maintain the navigation system architecture, including redundancy management and fault-tolerance design, ensuring alignment with mission requirements and spacecraft constraints.
• Develop navigation system requirements and manage their decomposition, allocation, and traceability through SE&I processes, including interface requirements with other spacecraft, launch vehicles, and ground segment(s).
• Design, develop, and analyze navigation filters for all mission phases, including launch, orbital maneuvers, and rendezvous and proximity operations.
• Perform detailed covariance analysis; derive navigation error budgets; validate filter performance and inform system-level design trades.
• Support sensor modeling and performance characterization for inertial measurement units, star trackers, optical navigation hardware, GNSS receivers, and other navigation instruments.
• Coordinate navigation system integration with avionics, flight software, and vehicle management systems, ensuring proper data interfaces, timing, and computational resource allocation.
• Support ground segment navigation operations design, including ground-based tracking, orbit determination, and state update processes.
• Develop, integrate, and verify navigation algorithms within high-fidelity simulation environments.
• Lead navigation-related technical reviews, present to program leadership and customers, and serve as the navigation subject matter expert across the program.
• Support verification and validation planning, execution, and documentation, including coordination with integrated test teams for hardware-in-the-loop and system-level testing.

Benefits

• Medical, dental, vision, basic and supplemental life insurance, paid parental leave, short and long-term disability, 401(k) with a company match of up to 5%, and an Education Support Program.
• Paid Time Off: Up to four (4) weeks per year based on weekly scheduled hours, and up to 14 company-paid holidays.

What This Job Offers

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