Navigation Engineer II

NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory

13d • Onsite

About The Position

New ideas are all around us, but only a few will change the world. That’s our focus at JPL. We ask the biggest questions, then search the universe for answers—literally. We build upon ideas that have guided generations, then share our discoveries to inspire generations to come. Your mission—your opportunity—is to seek out the answers that bring us one step closer. If you’re driven to discover, create, and inspire something that lasts a lifetime and beyond, you’re ready for JPL. Located in Pasadena, California, JPL has a campus-like environment situated on 177 acres in the foothills of the San Gabriel Mountains and offers a work environment unlike any other: we inspire passion, foster innovation, build collaboration, and reward excellence. JPL’s Mission Design and Navigation Section 324 builds maps and tools for interplanetary navigation, designs efficient routes for spacecraft to reach any remote solar system destinations, and pilots spacecraft safely to their ultimate targets. We are responsible for mapping the trajectory design and navigation trade-space to efficiently maximize science return while adhering to operational constraints and mitigating mission risks, science-based modeling, filtering and optimization, balancing trajectory knowledge and control, and quantifying observability and uncertainty. The Solar System Dynamics Group (SSD) is a unique group within JPL’s Mission Design and Navigation Section, involved in the following disciplines: Orbit prediction of all natural planetary objects Statistical assessment of hazardous near-Earth objects for potential Earth impact Physical characterization of solar system objects using space- and ground-based data, including gravity field, rotation, and shape Science-driven modeling and analysis Management and dissemination of ephemeris knowledge They are responsible for modeling the gravity fields and ring dynamics for selected solar system objects and modeling the motions of the 8 planets, 420+ natural satellites, over 4,000 comets, and nearly 1.5 million asteroids. SSD team members work with scientists and engineers throughout the U.S. and around the globe in enabling target body orbit predictions and computing up-to-date orbits, Earth close approaches, and impact probabilities for all near-Earth asteroids and comets. The Navigation Engineer Level 2 will be a member of the Solar System Dynamics Group and report administratively to the Group Supervisor and programmatically to Program/Project Leads.

Requirements

• Bachelors in aerospace engineering, Astronomy, or related technical discipline with 3 years of related experience; Masters in similar disciplines with 1 year of related experience; or PhD in similar disciplines with 0 years of related experience.
• Wide-ranging experience and knowledge in one or more of the following areas: software architecture, asteroid survey, astronomy, and/or aerospace engineering.
• Solid understanding and wide application of advanced principles, theories, concepts and techniques in orbit determination, software engineering, and astronomy discipline resulting in contributions to the development of new theories and methods.
• Demonstrated ability to present technical results to a wide audience.
• Available to work on site at JPL.

Nice To Haves

• Broad knowledge of planetary defense, with a focus on astrodynamics, orbit determination, impact monitoring, and ground surveys.
• Expertise in statistics, probability, and random processes.
• Demonstrated publication record in the field of planetary defense, asteroid impact monitoring, and small-body orbit determination.
• Excellent analytical and interpersonal skills.
• Self‑motivated researcher who thrives in a supportive team environment and can also pursue independent studies.
• Ability to lead a multifunctional and/or multidisciplinary team for a project, activity, or function.
• Expert proficiency in the Perl programming language.
• Proficiency in FORTRAN, Python, MATLAB, and C/C++.
• Familiarity with SQL database.
• Familiarity with software development practices, git-based development, and unit testing.
• Understanding and wide application of advanced principles, theories, concepts, and techniques in small-body orbit determination resulting in contributions to the development of new theories and methods.

Responsibilities

• Compute and analyze high-precision orbits for all Near-Earth Objects (NEOs) in support of JPL’s Center for Near-Earth Object Studies (CNEOS), predict their close approaches to the Earth, and report their impact probabilities.
• Estimate, predict, and analyze SSD’s small-body ephemerides as well as maintaining SSD’s small-body database.
• Monitor and maintain database systems, including in-house and AWS-hosted PostgreSQL primary and replica instances.
• Monitor and maintain existing AWS assets using technologies such as EC2, S3, CloudFront, ALB, Lambda, and RDS.
• Support development, maintenance, and improvement of cloud-optimized code for SSD’s current systems, including the automatic update system, Sentry, Scout, and mission design tools.
• Perform navigation tasks, including collection of data and inputs, weighting and processing of these data, estimation of the spacecraft’s orbital parameters and uncertainties, and estimation of solve-for model parameters and uncertainties that describe perturbations on the spacecraft, including the gravity field of the central body.
• Perform orbit determination analyses in support of small-body missions and report directly to project scientists and team leads, providing analysis, simulations, and uncertainty analyses.

Benefits

• JPL has a catalog of benefits and perks that span from the traditional to the unique. This includes a variety of health, dental, vision, wellbeing, and retirement plans, paid time off, learning, rideshare, childcare, flexible schedule, parental leave and many more.
• Our focus is on work-life balance, and living healthy, fulfilling lives as we Dare Mighty Things Together.
• For benefits eligible positions, benefits are effective the first day of the month coincident with or immediately following the employee’s start date.
• For further benefits information click Benefits and Perks

What This Job Offers

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