2027 PhD Graduate – Missile GN&C Engineer - Flight Navigation, Guidance & Control Evaluation and Development Group

Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory•Laurel, MD

4d•Onsite

About The Position

The Strategic Flight Guidance, Navigation, and Control Group is seeking a passionate PhD Grad to help us with the design, implementation and evaluation of GN&C subsystems for the nation’s primary missile systems. You will be joining a hardworking team of engineers, physicists, and mathematicians who are enthusiastic about their role as an independent evaluator for the nation’s strategic systems. We strive to foster an environment of innovation and learning to develop the critical technologies and experts of the future.

Requirements

Have, or soon to have, a PhD in Engineering, Physics, Math, or a related field.
Have had coursework and/or research experience in flight dynamics, guidance, navigation, or control, linear state-space systems, physical system modeling, or estimation theory.
Are inquisitive and are willing to learn new skills and expand your capabilities.
Are able to obtain Interim Secret level security clearance by your start date and can ultimately obtain Top Secret level clearance. If selected, you will be subject to a government security clearance investigation and must meet the requirements for access to classified information. Eligibility requirements include U.S. citizenship.

Nice To Haves

Have experience with MATLAB or another programming language such as C++.
Have experience or coursework with aided inertial navigation error analysis or system development.
Have experience or coursework with Kalman filtering.
Hold an active Secret or higher-level clearance.

Responsibilities

Develop innovative GN&C methodologies for next-generation strategic missile flight systems.
Apply state estimation techniques to solve problems with very large state representations for applications in on-board implementations and post-flight analysis.
Develop and understand underlying weapon system navigation related error models from a fundamental math and physics perspective.
Work with modeling and simulation tools such as MATLAB and Simulink to generate navigation sensor models and conduct performance trade studies.
Develop navigation algorithms for 6-DOF simulations.
Present analysis and results to sponsors that depend on APL to independently inform weapon system performance and designs.