Senior Guidance, Navigation, and Controls (GNC) Engineer

Varda Space Industries•El Segundo, CA

3d•$169,067 - $216,031•Onsite

About The Position

As a Senior Guidance, Navigation, and Controls (GNC) Engineer at Varda, you will own the full life cycle of GNC development, from design through unit testing, hardware-in-the-loop testing, on-vehicle functionality, and flight testing. You will perform system analyses—including simulations and Monte Carlo analyses—to meet specifications and requirements and inform system-level architectural and business decisions. You will contribute to Varda’s in-house aerospace simulation and test framework and develop and maintain design descriptions and supporting documentation. The role spans initial analysis and design, vehicle integration, mission planning, flight, and support of on-orbit and reentry mission operations. The position is on-site in El Segundo, California. The stated salary range is $169,067–$216,031 per year. The role is eligible for long-term incentives in the form of stock options and/or long-term cash awards. Employees must be U.S. persons authorized to access applicable export-controlled items.

Requirements

B.S. degree in aerospace, mechanical, or electrical engineering, physics, or a related field.
At least 5 years of proven experience, or a Ph.D. with at least 3 years of relevant experience.
Demonstrated knowledge of designing, modeling, testing, and flying aerospace guidance, navigation, and control systems.
Highly developed software and model development skills, particularly in C++ and Python.
Understanding of orbital mechanics, modeling and simulation, and software development.
Experience anchoring or fitting first-principles models to test data or high-fidelity external simulations.
Proven systems engineering and configuration management skills.
Excellent written and verbal communication skills.
Must be a U.S. person, as defined in the posting, eligible to access export-controlled items.

Nice To Haves

Master's degree in engineering or physics.
Experience with spacecraft attitude determination and control system design.
Experience with GMAT, POST2, or similar tools.
Understanding of multi-body dynamics, flexible-body dynamics, gas dynamics, fluids, and thermodynamics.
Experience developing and verifying physical models for control design, component sizing, and system performance evaluation.
Experience supporting safety-critical flight tests or spacecraft.
Ability to continuously manage risk and provide solutions using lean, state-of-the-art software development techniques.

Responsibilities

Specify ADCS hardware performance, including sizing reaction wheels, torque rods, IMU/GPS, and star trackers.
Design and implement autonomous satellite attitude control, collision avoidance, orbital rendezvous, burn planning, and atmospheric reentry algorithms.
Perform trajectory design, optimization, and dispersion analysis for space capsule reentry.
Develop six-degree-of-freedom vehicle simulations using C++, Python, and MATLAB/Simulink.
Run Monte Carlo analyses to characterize performance of new vehicle and mission capabilities.
Integrate and test GNC sensors, actuators, and software in a hardware-in-the-loop environment.
Design and implement ground tooling for fully automated maneuver responsibility and maneuver scheduling decisions.
Monitor on-orbit system performance and troubleshoot as necessary.
Coordinate with other spacecraft operators, third-party agencies, and the U.S. government.
Support the full GNC lifecycle, from design and analysis through vehicle integration, mission planning, flight testing, and on-orbit and reentry operations.