GNC Engineer - Navigation Sensors and Algorithms

K2 Space•Los Angeles, CA

14h

About The Position

K2 is hiring a GNC Engineer to own the spacecraft navigation and sensing chain, from physical sensor hardware through estimation algorithms and the flight software that runs them. This is a hands-on hardware and software role and serves as the GNC point of contact for Avionics, flight software, and Test teams. In the first six months, the engineer will help design and characterize GNSS receiver software drivers, develop testing to validate GNSS performance and link budgets across altitudes, and use the results to inform hardware and onboard filter design. During the first year, the engineer will support multiple launches of K2's stacked configuration and provide GNC support during operations.

Requirements

Master’s degree or higher in aerospace, electrical, or mechanical engineering, physics, or a related field.
At least 2 years of experience in navigation, estimation, or sensor engineering for spacecraft.
Strong grasp of estimation theory and hands-on experience implementing filters for real-time systems.
Hands-on experience with navigation hardware in a laboratory.
Experience using Python, Julia, C/C++, or Rust for algorithm development, implementation, hardware testing, and simulation.

Nice To Haves

Experience with early-stage spacecraft conceptual design or clean-sheet design work.
Previous experience with high-altitude or cislunar GNSS architectures.
Knowledge of GNSS link budgets and antenna pattern modeling.
Experience with optics, such as star trackers, cameras, and optical navigation.
Ability to characterize inertial sensors through Allan variance and PSD analysis to inform simulation and flight software development.
Experience with magnetometer calibration and bias compensation, including the design and operation of a Helmholtz cage and zero-gauss chamber.
Hands-on experience with GNSS simulators, attenuators, LNAs, and spectrum analyzers.
Experience with vehicle-level polarity and run-for-record testing.
Basic power electronics, serial protocol, and Ethernet knowledge.
Knowledge of avionics radiation basics, including transient and dose effects, how they manifest, and hardware- and software-layer FDIR strategies to mitigate them.
Exposure to environmental testing, such as SMC-S-016 and/or HALT/HASS, to facilitate root-cause investigations during GNC component acceptance or qualification testing.

Responsibilities

Design, implement, and verify onboard orbit and attitude determination algorithms, including EKF/MEKF/UKF, batch estimators, and sensor fusion.
Develop high-altitude GNSS navigation capability for MEO and GEO, including sidelobe and weak-signal tracking, receiver selection, and onboard orbit filtering.
Improve measurement and system timing accuracy from sensor output to GNC ingestion, ensuring low-latency and low-jitter navigation.
Develop and run GNC sensor calibration on the ground and on orbit.
Select, specify, and integrate navigation sensors, including GNSS receivers, IMUs, magnetometers, and star trackers, in fault-tolerant architectures.
Build sensor models and estimation components in the simulation framework and bring algorithms from prototype into production flight software.
Support on-orbit commissioning and analyze navigation performance during mission operations.
Define pass/fail performance criteria for GNC hardware during acceptance testing and support investigations of out-of-spec hardware.
Recruit, interview, and mentor engineers to help shape the GNC team.
Help design and characterize GNSS receiver software drivers, develop GNSS performance and link-budget testing, and feed findings into hardware and onboard filter design.
Support multiple launches of the stacked configuration and serve as the GNC point of contact during operations.