Senior Acquisition, Tracking & Pointing Engineer

Impulse Space•Redondo Beach, CA

1d•Onsite

About The Position

As a Senior Acquisition, Tracking & Pointing Engineer, you will lead the development of the pointing and tracking subsystem for our FSO laser communication terminal. You will design the algorithms and controls (both software and hardware). This is a hands-on role blending optics, sensors, and control theory – you’ll be architecting the pointing control loops, selecting sensors (cameras, trackers, IMUs), and coding or configuring the real-time control software/FPGA. You will have broad autonomy to define the PAT architecture and will be the go-to expert for optical pointing and tracking, with the opportunity to grow a team as our FSO programs expand. This role is on-site and will interface heavily with the optical, photonics, and modem teams to ensure an integrated design.

Requirements

Bachelor’s or Master’s in Aerospace Engineering, Controls/Electrical Engineering, Applied Physics or similar field.
5+ years of experience working on pointing, tracking, or guidance/control systems (such as satellite attitude control, gimbal systems, or optical tracking systems).
Strong foundation in control theory and signal processing. Experience designing and tuning feedback control loops (PID, state-space, Kalman filters) for high-precision systems. Knowledge of sensor fusion and state estimation (e.g. IMU integration with optical trackers).
Understanding of optical pointing mechanisms – experience with gimbals, fast steering mirrors, precision opto-mechanical actuators or similar hardware. Ability to analyze pointing errors, jitter spectra, and to create pointing error budgets accounting for on-orbit behaviors.
Proficiency in programming for algorithm development and real-time implementation. This could include MATLAB/Simulink or Python for modeling, and C/C++ and/or HDL (VHDL/Verilog) for implementing algorithms on real-time processors or FPGAs. Hands-on experience with implementing control algorithms in embedded systems or FPGAs is highly desirable.
Experience setting up experiments or test rigs for control systems (motion platforms, optical setups, etc.). Comfortable with data acquisition and analysis of system performance (using tools like Python, MATLAB). Demonstrated ability to troubleshoot complex hardware/software systems in a lab or field environment.

Nice To Haves

Spacecraft or Aerospace GNC: Direct experience with spacecraft attitude determination and control systems or optical payload pointing is a strong plus. Familiarity with how satellite AOCS (Attitude and Orbit Control Systems) interacts with a high-precision payload pointing system (e.g., understanding of ephemeris, onboard pointing profiles, etc.).
Experience working on free-space optical communication pointing/tracking systems or telescopes. For instance, developing PAT for laser communications, optical telescopes for imaging satellites, or line-of-sight stabilization for airborne lasers. Knowledge of atmospheric effects (seeing, turbulence) on beam pointing and strategies to counter them (like adaptive optics or feed-forward) is beneficial.
Exposure to adaptive optics systems (deformable mirrors, wavefront sensors) or tip-tilt correction in telescopes can be useful, as it overlaps with high-frequency correction of beam pointing. Experience planning acquisition beacon strategies or working with transponders and retro-reflectors on the ground terminal.
Experience with low-latency hardware implementations of control loops – for example, using FPGAs, DSPs, or real-time operating systems to achieve control loop frequencies in the kHz range. Familiarity with FPGA development toolchains (Xilinx or Microsemi) for implementing high-speed tracking algorithms is a plus.
Space environment experience is preferred – e.g., designing control systems or sensors that flew on spacecraft or aircraft. Knowledge of radiation effects on sensors/electronics, thermal considerations for sensors in vacuum, and qualification testing (vibe, shock) for flight hardware.
Candidates with deep experience in terrestrial optical tracking (e.g., telescope pointing or military targeting systems) will also be considered, especially if they demonstrate understanding of how to adapt such systems for space use.

Responsibilities

Own the end-to-end pointing, acquisition, and tracking (PAT) architecture for the FSO system. Develop pointing budgets that account for spacecraft attitude dynamics, thermal drift, and atmospheric disturbance, and allocate error to subsystems (gimbal, fine steering mirror, sensors). Define the control system requirements (bandwidth, stability, accuracy) needed to achieve sub-µrad pointing stability.
Design and implement algorithms to acquire transmitter and rapidly and maintain lock. This includes search strategies (spiral scans, beacon acquisition sequences), tracking filters (Kalman or extended Kalman filters for sensor fusion), and loss-of-signal recovery strategies. Develop software and/or FPGA logic for real-time centroiding of acquisition camera images and tracking detector signals (quad cells or position sensing devices).
Develop the control loops for fast steering mirrors (FSM) or precision actuators to actively suppress jitter and beam wander. Integrate IMU data and other inertial references to feed-forward or stabilize line-of-sight pointing. Tune closed-loop controllers to mitigate disturbances (reaction wheels, vibration) and atmospheric tilt errors, achieving residual pointing error within the link budget.
Hardware-In-the-Loop (HIL) Testing: Build a testbed to validate PAT performance, including hardware-in-loop simulations. For example, set up a dynamic optical simulator with a movable target, turbulence phase screens, and a real-time controller. Test the acquisition time and tracking robustness under varying conditions (simulated satellite motion, atmospheric turbulence levels) and iterate on algorithms as needed.
Develop quick software prototypes or simulations of pointing algorithms (e.g. in MATLAB/Python) to prove out concepts. Then implement the final high-reliability solution in embedded software or FPGA firmware for flight. Support “hands-on” troubleshooting and iteration during optical alignment sessions and system tests, adjusting control parameters to achieve optimal performance on the hardware.