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

f7d8749a-72d6-407c-bf98-292ea630c73a•Seattle, WA

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 define and deliver the G&C architecture, including Auto-Taxi and ATOL algorithms, control laws, guidance, trajectory validation, flight-mode logic, and control allocation. The role also leads development and validation of high-fidelity 6DOF simulation capabilities, establishes requirements-based verification and compliance evidence, and coordinates cross-disciplinary trades and integrations. The position leads G&C preparation and analysis for ground and flight testing, including test-point selection, envelope expansion, pre-flight predictions, and post-flight reconstruction. It provides evidence-based flight-readiness recommendations and drives corrective changes based on test results. The role also leads integration between flight autonomy and mission autonomy through A-GRA-aligned interfaces.

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 setting technical direction, assigning ownership, mentoring engineers, and delivering complex development efforts through coordinated execution.
Demonstrated ownership of 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 an understanding of the division between flight autonomy and mission autonomy and the interfaces required for feasible vehicle-level execution.
Proficiency in C++, including experience 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 the ability to resolve ambiguous cross-disciplinary problems and communicate 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 establishing 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++ 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 with configuration control, verification rigor, and disciplined flight-readiness assessments.

Responsibilities

Build and lead the Ranger G&C team, define staffing needs and technical ownership, and develop the team through mentorship, design reviews, and hands-on problem solving.
Own the G&C development roadmap, translating program objectives into phased plans for requirements, algorithm maturation, simulation, software integration, verification, and flight testing.
Own project execution by scoping and estimating work, allocating resources, managing schedules and dependencies, tracking deliverables, identifying risks, and communicating mitigation plans and trade-offs.
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.
Maintain stable, predictable aircraft performance in the presence of actuator constraints, disturbances, uncertainty, and defined degraded conditions.
Lead integration between flight autonomy and mission autonomy through A-GRA-aligned interfaces, establishing responsibilities for mission-level decisions and vehicle-level execution.
Lead development and validation of high-fidelity 6DOF simulation capabilities, including model-fidelity requirements, validation plans, and uncertainty bounds.
Own G&C verification strategy and compliance evidence, defining requirements-based acceptance criteria and verification coverage across analysis, simulations, and software- and hardware-in-the-loop testing.
Drive cross-disciplinary trades with propulsion, aerodynamics, actuation, state estimation, embedded software, and autonomy teams; translate G&C 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.