Guidance, Navigation, and Control (GNC) Engineer - Ranger (R6391)

Shield AI•Seattle, WA

12d•$170,000 - $257,000

About The Position

Shield AI is hiring a Guidance, Navigation, and Control (GNC) Engineer to build and lead the Guidance & Control team for Ranger, a fully autonomous aircraft designed for conventional runway takeoff and landing. The role owns the team’s technical direction, development roadmap, and project execution, delivering flight-control and flight-autonomy capabilities from requirements and architecture through flight verification. The engineer will lead development of the G&C architecture and algorithms, including Auto-Taxi and ATOL, inner- and outer-loop control laws, guidance, trajectory validation, flight-mode logic, and control allocation. The role also leads high-fidelity 6DOF simulation development and validation, requirements-based verification, integration between flight autonomy and mission autonomy through A-GRA-aligned interfaces, and preparation and analysis for ground and flight tests. The position requires coordinating across engineering disciplines and program teams, managing staffing, schedules, dependencies, risks, and milestones, and communicating technical decisions and flight-readiness recommendations. Compensation is listed at $170,000–$257,000 per year. The full-time regular employee offer package includes pay within the stated range, bonus, benefits, and equity. Salary is influenced by factors including skill set, experience, credentials, and work location. Offers are contingent on a cleared background check and may include a reference check.

Requirements

10+ years of experience in flight controls, GNC, or autonomous aircraft development, with technical ownership of flight-vehicle systems from requirements and design through integration and flight test.
Experience building or leading engineering teams, including establishing technical direction, assigning ownership, mentoring engineers, and coordinating delivery of complex development efforts.
Experience owning technical roadmaps and project execution, including work scoping, effort estimation, staffing plans, milestone definition, dependency management, and technical risk reduction.
Deep expertise in aircraft flight dynamics, classical and modern control theory, nonlinear systems, and fixed-wing control-law design, including stability, performance, and robustness across the operating envelope.
Strong experience developing or validating high-fidelity 6DOF simulations and using ground- and flight-test data to identify modeling limitations, characterize uncertainty, and improve predictive capability.
Experience defining and executing requirements-based verification strategies, including linear and nonlinear analysis, Monte Carlo studies, integrated testing, and flight-test analysis.
Experience integrating guidance, control, and flight-mode logic, with understanding of the division between flight autonomy and mission autonomy and the interfaces needed for vehicle-level execution.
Proficiency in C++, including implementing, reviewing, and debugging G&C or simulation software and addressing real-time execution constraints.
Experience using MATLAB and/or Python for engineering analysis and verification.
Strong technical judgment and communication skills, including resolving ambiguous cross-disciplinary problems and communicating decisions, assumptions, risks, and limitations to engineers and program leadership.

Nice To Haves

Experience leading development, integration, or flight verification of autonomous fixed-wing aircraft.
Direct experience defining, implementing, or verifying A-GRA-aligned interfaces, or integrating flight autonomy with a separate mission-autonomy provider.
Experience building a G&C team or development capability for a new aircraft program, including technical practices, simulation infrastructure, verification workflows, and development plans.
Experience applying flight-safety and airworthiness processes, deriving flight-control requirements, and producing supporting artifacts such as simulation descriptions, verification reports, and flying-qualities analyses.
Experience evaluating navigation errors, air-data uncertainty, altitude-sensing limitations, latency, and data validity against flight-control and ATOL performance requirements.
Experience establishing software- and hardware-in-the-loop capabilities, automated regression testing, and CI/CD workflows using Linux, Git, and modern C++ development practices.
Experience integrating steady-state or transient NPSS propulsion models or model outputs into a 6DOF simulation environment.
Experience leading G&C execution in developmental flight-test programs while balancing rapid iteration, configuration control, verification rigor, and disciplined flight-readiness assessments.

Responsibilities

Build and lead the Ranger G&C team, defining staffing needs and technical ownership and developing the team through mentorship, design reviews, and hands-on problem solving.
Own the G&C development roadmap, translating program objectives into phased requirements, algorithm maturation, simulation, software integration, verification, and flight-testing plans with measurable milestones.
Own project execution and delivery, including scoping and estimating work, allocating resources, managing schedules and cross-team dependencies, tracking deliverables, identifying risks, and driving mitigation plans.
Define and deliver the G&C architecture, including Auto-Taxi and ATOL algorithms, inner- and outer-loop control laws, guidance, trajectory validation, flight-mode logic, and control allocation.
Lead integration between flight autonomy and mission autonomy through A-GRA-aligned interfaces, defining responsibilities for mission-level decision-making and vehicle-level execution.
Lead development and validation of high-fidelity 6DOF simulation capabilities, including model-fidelity requirements, validation plans, and uncertainty bounds.
Own the G&C verification strategy and compliance evidence, defining requirements-based acceptance criteria and coverage across analysis, Monte Carlo campaigns, sensitivity and failure studies, and software- and hardware-in-the-loop testing.
Drive cross-disciplinary trades with propulsion, aerodynamics, actuation, state estimation, embedded software, and autonomy teams; translate performance needs into subsystem requirements and resolve interface, timing, and integration issues.
Lead G&C preparation and analysis for ground and flight testing, including test-point selection, envelope-expansion planning, pre-flight predictions, and post-flight reconstruction.
Provide evidence-based flight-readiness recommendations, resolve simulation-to-test discrepancies, and drive verified corrective changes.