Mission Design / Navigation Engineer

Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory•Laurel, MD

About The Position

This role is for a self-motivated engineer who will lead and participate with mission design / navigation teams in both civil space and national security space mission areas, from conception to flight. The engineer will have the opportunity to support both pre-launch mission development and post-launch optimization and planning. Contributing directly to a continuously evolving code-base and individually pursuing IR&D funding, the engineer will work with the team to ensure that APL is on the cutting edge of trajectory design and spacecraft navigation. The team is passionate about their work, striving to cultivate an environment of partnership and collaboration, and committed to making critical contributions to critical challenges.

Requirements

MS in Aerospace Engineering, Computer Science or related field.
Significant coursework in astrodynamics, optimization, dynamical systems, mathematics, navigation techniques, and computer science.
At least 4 years of experience in spacecraft mission design, navigation, or another rigorous technical field.
Possess or are willing to acquire knowledge of GPS, ground-based orbit estimation techniques, or optical navigation techniques.
Skilled in analytical and numerical computing, such as C++, Fortran, MATLAB, Python, and/or Java.
Willing and able to obtain a TS/SCI security clearance.
U.S. citizenship.

Nice To Haves

PhD in Aerospace Engineering, Computer Science or related field.
At least 10 years of experience in spacecraft mission design, navigation, or another rigorous technical field.
Experience with cloud computing, estimation theory, evolutionary algorithms, convex/stochastic optimization or have taught related courses.
Experience participating in agile software development projects involving many stake holders.
Experience in common astrodynamics software environments such as Monte, STK, ODTK, Copernicus, FreeFlyer, or GMAT.
Possess an active Top Secret clearance (or above).
Have possessed and are familiar with network access to DoD related systems.

Responsibilities

Trajectory design of Earth, Cislunar, Lunar, and interplanetary space missions for both civilian and DoD applications.
Design and evaluate mission concepts by drawing from a strong understanding of first principles and from modern or high-performance computing methods.
Provide intellectual leadership to emerging mission concepts and methods of analysis.
Hold a vital role on projects while working across teams composed of experts in other engineering disciplines, scientists, and program managers.
Contribute to cutting edge trajectory design and navigation methodologies through independent research and development.
Leverage and garner relationships across industry and academia to tackle critical challenges.
Stay abreast of recent advances in academia and industry and apply these concepts to problems of interest.