Guidance, Navigation & Control (GNC) Engineer

Spaceium•Ottawa, ON

4h•CA$75,000 - CA$110,000•Onsite

About The Position

At Spaceium, we are building spacecraft systems designed to push the boundaries of what's possible in orbit. As a Guidance, Navigation & Control (GNC) Engineer, you will design the algorithms that let our spacecraft know where they are, decide where to go, and get there precisely. You will own estimation, attitude and orbit determination, and control across the full loop — from math on the whiteboard to flight software running on hardware in high-stakes, resource-constrained environments.

Requirements

Bachelor's degree in Aerospace, Mechanical, Electrical Engineering, Robotics, Applied Mathematics, or a related field
Strong foundation in control theory, linear algebra, and dynamics
Programming experience in Python and/or C/C++
Experience with simulation and analysis tools such as MATLAB/Simulink or equivalent Python stacks
Experience with version control systems such as Git

Nice To Haves

Creative problem solver with strong first-principles thinking, capable of assessing risk and making decisions with limited data.
Experience in a nimble, technical engineering role, with a scrappy, entrepreneurial approach to meeting tight time or budget constraints.
Hands-on experience with spacecraft ADCS, orbital mechanics, or trajectory design
Experience implementing estimators or controllers in embedded / flight software
Familiarity with sensor calibration, sensor fusion, and hardware-in-the-loop testing
Experience with real built hardware — student design teams (rocketry, CubeSat, autonomous vehicles), research, or industry
Excellent verbal and written communication skills, collaborative team player, and detail-oriented with a focus on quality.

Responsibilities

Design and implement guidance, navigation, and control algorithms for spacecraft attitude determination and control (ADCS), orbit determination, and maneuver planning
Develop state estimation and sensor fusion (e.g., Kalman/nonlinear filters) fusing IMU, star tracker, sun sensor, GPS, and other sensor data
Model spacecraft dynamics and orbital mechanics, and design controllers (e.g., PID, LQR, robust/adaptive) for pointing, station-keeping, and trajectory tracking
Build high-fidelity simulation environments to validate GNC performance across nominal and off-nominal conditions
Implement and test GNC algorithms in flight software, and support hardware-in-the-loop verification
Run Monte Carlo analyses and closed-loop verification to characterize performance, stability, and margins
Collaborate with software, systems, avionics, and operations engineers to integrate GNC into the full vehicle
Support on-orbit operations, commissioning, and anomaly resolution for GNC subsystems