GNC Engineer: Modeling & Simulation Product Lead – GPI (Level 4/5) – Secret

Northrop Grumman•Chandler, AZ

94d•$122,800 - $229,300•Onsite

About The Position

Northrop Grumman’s Space Sector is seeking a Guidance Navigation Control Engineer: Modeling and Simulation (M&S) Product Lead – Level 4/5 to join our team in Chandler, AZ. This position is 100% onsite and cannot accommodate telecommute work. Our GNC (Guidance, Navigation and Control) Engineers design, develop, implement, verify, and test algorithms and simulation tools that deliver guidance, navigation and control for aircraft, spacecraft, missiles, launch vehicles and related platforms across every mission phase—from powered ascent to interplanetary cruise and orbital insertion. In this job, you will be responsible for both the GNC technical modeling, simulation, and analysis as well as the Modeling and Simulation product lead responsibilities of IMS planning, team management/support, cross-team coordination, as well as customer-facing communication and facilitation of internal/external working groups. This position will work a 9/80 schedule, with every other Friday off.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree with 8 years of professional experience – OR – Master’s degree with 6 years of professional experience – OR – PhD with 4 years of professional experience. Will consider an additional 4+ years of experience in lieu of degree. (Level 4)
Bachelor’s degree with 12 years of professional experience – OR – Master’s degree with 10 years of professional experience – OR – PhD with 8 years of professional experience. Will consider an additional 4+ years of experience in lieu of degree. (Level 5)
Requires an active U.S. Government Secret security clearance at time of application, current and within scope
Proficiency in object‑oriented programming, especially C++, and scripting with Bash, Python, and MATLAB.
Proficiency in creating and implementing 6-degree-of-freedom (6DoF) simulation models.
Strong background in designing, developing, implementing, and testing GNC algorithms, simulation models, and control systems.
Proven experience leading mentoring and training a team engineers.
Ability to participate in verification and validation processes for aerospace systems.
Knowledge of Earned Value Management Systems (EVMS).

Nice To Haves

Advanced degree (Master's or PhD) in Aerospace Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Electrical Engineering, or a related field.
Strong analytical and problem-solving skills to support control law design and system optimization.
Knowledge of launch vehicles, spacecraft control, or related fields in aerospace systems.
Hands-on experience in missile software development and validation testing.
Create CI/CD Pipelines – able to automate simulation runs and post processing.
Experience running 6DOF/3DOF simulations on HPC cluster for modeling vehicle trajectory and performance.
Experience using job schedulers such as SLURM or PBS.
Experience with the Atlassian toolset, such as Jira and Confluence.

Responsibilities

Design, develop, implement, verify, and test high‑quality software and simulation toolchains for missile flight systems.
Develop and integrate autopilot and guidance algorithms directly into missile flight code.
Seamlessly incorporate algorithms into the vehicle’s flight software while collaborating with software and hardware teams.
Utilize various trajectory‑optimization tools to generate, interpret, and analyze vehicle trajectory results.
Modify or create new scripts (e.g., Python, MATLAB, Bash) to capture customer requirements and measure vehicle performance.
Build, validate, and maintain modeling and simulation frameworks for aerospace vehicles and components, ensuring accuracy across operational scenarios.
Enhance simulation fidelity by integrating advanced modeling techniques to support system analysis and decision‑making.
Conduct rigorous testing and evaluation of simulation models, identifying and resolving discrepancies between simulated and real‑world performance metrics.
Gather, post‑process, and analyze large, complex data sets to verify and validate performance results.
Ensure that simulation outcomes match intended performance metrics and system specifications.
Document design rationale, test results, and compliance evidence for aerospace standards and program reviews.
Collaborate with multidisciplinary engineering teams (systems, propulsion, structures, avionics) to integrate GNC solutions into overall vehicle architectures.
Other duties as assigned