Senior Guidance, Navigation, & Control (GNC) Engineer

K2 Space

12d • $160,000 - $220,000

About The Position

K2 Space is building large, high-powered spacecraft for the next generation of space development. Backed by Lightspeed Venture Partners, Altimeter Capital, and many others ($200M raised to date), we intend to mass produce the highest-powered satellite platforms ever built for missions across LEO to Deep Space. The rise of launch vehicles like Falcon 9 and Starship enables the move from an era of mass constraint to one of mass abundance. We believe this new era requires spacecraft with a fundamentally different design in order to fully utilize the massive rockets coming to market. We’re a team that believes the future lies in building large, high-powered satellites that can handle multiple orbits. This is a necessity if we ever want to develop the solar system, and become a Kardashev Type II (K2) civilization. If you are a motivated individual who thrives in a fast-paced environment and you're excited about contributing to the success of a groundbreaking Series B space startup, we’d love for you to apply. The Role As a Senior GNC engineer, you will be a core driver of the overall spacecraft GNC architecture. You will execute detailed trade studies to find new and novel ways to implement the spacecraft’s guidance, attitude control, and attitude and orbit estimation systems. In the first 3 months, you will support the development of the control infrastructure, from discrete filter design in the time domain to thorough analysis in the frequency domain. Additionally, you will support the development of autonomous orbit raise for a vehicle to MEO and the associated navigation to support an autonomous orbit raise. In the first 6 months, you will own and execute the Verification and Validation plan for the GNC stack, driving the system to flight readiness via a robust and thorough analysis of vehicle performance in both nominal and off nominal environments. This push for flight readiness will motivate thorough analysis, leading to updates to both the GNC stack and the K2 6-DOF simulation. The expectation is that all GNC team members commit code to the 6-DOF sim as well as owning a portion of the GNC flight software. In the first year, you will support launch and on orbit operations of the first full demonstration of the K2 spacecraft bus – the Mega. In parallel, you will support the block 2 upgrades of the GNC stack and 6-DOF sim, taking lessons learned from on orbit operations to increase the fidelity of the simulation and the vehicle performance of the GNC stack.

Requirements

• Experience with GNC actuator or sensor sizing, selection, and system design
• Experience with implementing attitude control and/or estimation algorithms on spacecraft
• Experience with verification and validation of GNC flight software in an integrated environment, leveraging 6-DOF simulation and HITL testing.
• Experience with Python, Julia, C/C++, or Matlab for algorithm development, implementation, and simulation

Nice To Haves

• Experience with early-stage spacecraft conceptual design, i.e. “clean sheet” design work
• Experience with control algorithm development
• Experience with reaction wheel, control moment gyroscope, or thruster sizing and algorithm implementation
• Experience with navigation, specifically Extended Kalman Filters
• Experience with trajectory analysis, modeling, and mission design
• Experience with Rust software development

Responsibilities

• Work with other engineering leads to develop and validate a novel high level vehicle architecture
• Develop novel algorithms for precise pointing of very large, flexible structures in earth orbit and beyond
• Develop novel slewing algorithms of very large, flexible structures in earth orbit and beyond
• Develop simulation and modeling tools to support vehicle and GNC trade studies. This includes mission design, controls analysis, and 6-DOF simulation development.
• Contribute to building the GNC organization by recruiting, hiring, and mentoring other engineers

Benefits

• Base salary range for this role is $160,000 - $220,000 + equity in the company
• Salary will be based on several factors including, but not limited to: knowledge and skills, education, and experience level
• Comprehensive benefits package including paid time off, medical/dental/vision coverage, life insurance, paid parental leave, and many other perks

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Senior
• Education Level: No Education Listed
• Number of Employees: 51-100 employees