Principal Autonomous Navigation Engineer

Blue Origin • Littleton, CO

18h

About The Position

The Principal Autonomous Navigation Engineer will serve as the technical authority for autonomous onboard navigation capabilities on Blue Origin’s Astrodynamics and Trajectory eXecution (ATX) team. The role supports Blue Ring missions across cislunar, heliocentric, and interplanetary environments, including missions around the Moon and Mars. It combines development of future autonomous navigation systems with hands-on ground-based statistical orbit determination for near-term operational missions.

The engineer will define and lead an end-to-end navigation architecture integrating optical and radiometric measurement sources across ground and spacecraft systems. The role drives algorithms, software, requirements, and operational processes from concept through flight implementation, while shaping the long-term roadmap toward fully autonomous deep-space navigation. The position also provides technical direction and mentorship to navigation engineers and collaborates with GNC, avionics, flight software, systems engineering, and flight operations teams.

Requirements

• M.S. in Aerospace Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Electrical Engineering, or a related field.
• 10 or more years of experience in spacecraft navigation, orbit determination, or related astrodynamics disciplines.
• Demonstrated experience developing and implementing orbit determination algorithms.
• Experience with optical navigation techniques, such as camera calibration, optical centroiding, terrain-relative navigation, star-based navigation, or landmark tracking.
• Strong fundamentals in astrodynamics, orbital mechanics, and estimation theory.
• Applied experience with navigation tools such as Monte, STK/ODTK, FreeFlyer, or GMAT.
• Experience with at least one of Python, Julia, or C++.
• Demonstrated ability to define navigation requirements.
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills.
• Ability to earn trust, maintain positive and professional relationships, and contribute to a culture of inclusion.
• Must be a U.S. citizen or national, U.S. permanent resident (current Green Card holder), or lawfully admitted into the U.S. as a refugee or granted asylum.

Nice To Haves

• Ph.D. in Aerospace Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Electrical Engineering, or a related field.
• Experience with cislunar or interplanetary mission navigation.
• Experience with radiometric navigation techniques such as Doppler, ranging, or VLBI.
• Experience developing or deploying autonomous or onboard navigation systems in flight.
• Experience with optical navigation in deep-space approach and proximity operations.
• Experience with GNC algorithm development and flight software integration.
• Experience with maneuver planning and execution.
• Experience with rendezvous and proximity operations.
• Experience leading a navigation team through design, development, and operational deployment.
• Demonstrated knowledge of the mission design lifecycle from conceptualization through operational flight.
• Experience with DevOps processes, including configuration control, continuous integration/deployment, Agile methodologies, and code review.
• Experience with software development tools such as Jira, git, Jenkins, Docker, and at least one IDE.
• Willingness or ability to acquire Active Top Secret (TS)/Sensitive Compartmented Information (SCI) clearance with Single Scope Background Investigation (SSBI) with polygraph.

Responsibilities

• Define the end-to-end architecture for onboard autonomous orbit determination, integrating optical and radiometric measurements for cislunar and interplanetary missions.
• Lead development and integration of optical and radiometric measurement processing into onboard navigation algorithms.
• Drive the technical roadmap for autonomous deep-space navigation from concept through flight implementation and across the Blue Ring fleet.
• Contribute to live ground-based orbit determination with the ATX team when operational missions require navigation support.
• Apply statistical orbit determination expertise using radiometric and optical measurements to deliver navigation solutions for early lunar and Mars missions.
• Coordinate with GNC, avionics, flight software, systems engineering, and flight operations teams to integrate and validate onboard navigation algorithms and supporting flight hardware.
• Provide technical leadership and mentorship to navigation engineers, and establish best practices for algorithm development, testing, and verification.
• Present results and support critical design reviews using Agile development methodologies.
• Define navigation requirements.

Benefits

• Medical insurance
• Dental insurance
• Vision insurance
• Basic and supplemental life insurance
• Paid parental leave
• Short- and long-term disability
• 401(k) with company match of up to 5%
• Education Support Program
• Stock options for regular employees working at least 20 hours per week
• Up to four weeks of paid time off per year based on weekly scheduled hours
• Up to 14 company-paid holidays
• Depending on role type and job level, potential eligibility for benefits and bonuses based on individual contributions and company results; bonus amounts and eligibility are not guaranteed.

What This Job Offers

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