Senior GNC Engineer (Navigation)

Castelion Corporation • Rio Rancho, NM

1d

About The Position

We are seeking a Senior GNC Engineer to develop advanced navigation solutions for Castelion's long-range hypersonic strike vehicles. This role is critical to enabling precise state estimation across all mission phases, including GPS-denied environments. You will work hands-on with multidisciplinary engineering teams to design, analyze, implement, and validate multi-sensor navigation algorithms, including star tracker-based alternative navigation and sensor fusion architectures, in a fast-paced, hardware-driven environment.

Requirements

• Bachelor's, Master's, or PhD in Aerospace Engineering, Electrical Engineering, or related field
• 5+ years of experience in navigation algorithm development, analysis, and validation for aerospace or high-performance dynamic systems
• Strong background in estimation theory, including Extended Kalman Filters (EKF) and multi-sensor fusion
• Experience with inertial navigation systems (INS) and integration with external aiding sources (e.g., GNSS, star trackers, or similar sensors)
• Familiarity with alternative navigation (alt-nav) techniques for GPS-denied environments
• Proficiency in modeling and simulation tools such as MATLAB/Simulink or equivalent
• Experience with 3DOF and 6DOF simulation environments and real-time implementation of navigation algorithms
• Strong understanding of sensor error modeling (IMUs, star trackers, etc.) and calibration techniques
• Familiarity with flight software integration and real-time embedded systems
• Strong problem-solving mindset, thriving in a fast-paced, hardware-rich, high flight cadence environment
• U.S. citizenship is required, as only U.S. citizens are eligible for a security clearance.
• The ability to obtain and maintain a U.S. government–issued security clearance is required.

Responsibilities

• Design and develop navigation algorithms for high-speed flight vehicles, including inertial navigation and alternative navigation (alt-nav) methods
• Develop and implement multi-sensor fusion architectures using Extended Kalman Filters (EKF) and related estimation techniques
• Integrate data from IMUs, star trackers, GNSS (when available), and other onboard sensors to provide robust, high-accuracy state estimation
• Work closely with avionics, flight sciences, and flight software teams to integrate navigation algorithms into real-time embedded systems
• Conduct modeling, simulation, and analysis to evaluate navigation performance, error growth, and robustness under GPS-denied and degraded conditions
• Support hardware-in-the-loop (HIL) testing, flight testing, and post-flight analysis, translating results into system-level improvements
• Characterize sensor performance, biases, and error sources to inform filter design and tuning
• Develop tools and frameworks for navigation algorithm development, verification, and validation
• Mentor junior engineers and contribute to best practices in navigation and estimation
• Partner closely with program leadership to make technical trades aligned with mission success

Benefits

• Meaningful long-term equity
• Four (4) weeks of paid time off
• Ten (10) company-paid holidays
• Comprehensive health benefits - including 100% employee-covered medical and strong dependent coverage, along with dental and vision plans
• Paid parental leave
• $100 monthly fitness stipend
• Onsite EV charging
• Catered meals
• Company-covered food during high-demand periods
• Fully stocked kitchen

What This Job Offers

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