Guidance, Navigation & Control (GNC) Engineer - Early Career

Askari Defense • Atlanta, GA

4d

About The Position

This role is designed for early-career engineers, including new graduates, with an interest in Guidance, Navigation, and Control (GNC) and hands-on system development. Applicants to this role will not be considered for internships. Under the guidance of our senior engineering team, you will move from first-principles physics and theoretical modeling to real-time software implementation and rigorous flight analysis. You will work directly under senior GNC engineers who have pioneered industry-leading flight stacks. This is a high-tempo apprenticeship designed for rapid technical maturation. We are looking for evidence-driven engineers: individuals who prioritize physical reality over opinion and have the technical conviction to derive the best solution as supported by data. This role is designed for early-career engineers who want exposure to a multidisciplinary autonomy stack. You will work across the sim-to-real spectrum, from SITL/HITL testing with our bespoke, in-house simulation platform all the way to extensive hands-on flight testing experience with real systems.

Requirements

• BS or MS in Aerospace Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Computer Science, Robotics, or a related field.
• Demonstrated capability to independently execute projects in high-performance applications, such as Formula SAE, collegiate rocketry (L3), UAV competitions, or high-signal internships. Ideally GNC-related.
• Proficiency in C++ for on-vehicle implementation and Python for analysis and simulation.
• Ability to travel as necessary to support rigorous flight testing events and campaigns.
• Experience with at least some of the following fields: Controls: Control architectures for dynamic systems, including PID, LQR, Model Predictive Control (MPC), Adaptive Control, and related methods. State Estimation: EKF, UKF, VIO, or high-G target tracking.

Nice To Haves

• Experience in simulation & validation: Digital-twin replication and high-fidelity physics modeling.
• Experience in flight regimes: High-speed multirotor and rocket systems; nonlinear dynamics and transition maneuvers.
• Experience with software frameworks: ROS/ROS2 or other custom, lightweight middlewares.
• Experience with real-time systems: Deployment on STM32, Jetson, and FPGA platforms, including implementation in RTOS/Linux, low-level control-loop tuning, and high-rate telemetry analysis.

Responsibilities

• Derive theoretical guidance laws.
• Implement advanced filtering to robustify vehicle state estimation in contested environments.
• Fine-tune low-level controllers on hardware.
• Contribute to the design and implementation of software spanning first-principles analysis through low-level embedded execution, supporting the development of high-performance autonomous systems.
• Implement advanced guidance laws and trajectory optimization for high-speed interceptors operating across highly nonlinear, high-dynamic flight regimes.
• Support development of target tracking and GPS-contested navigation, using multimodal sensor fusion, including KF variants, real-time filters, factor graphs, and related approaches, to ensure robust performance in dynamic environments.
• Assist in the design of high-performance active control systems, including LQR, MPC, and related approaches, for highly maneuverable, aerodynamically unstable vehicles.

What This Job Offers

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