Staff Engineer Systems

Northrop Grumman•Azusa, CA

1d•$177,000 - $265,600•Onsite

About The Position

At Northrop Grumman, our employees have incredible opportunities to work on revolutionary systems that impact people's lives around the world today, and for generations to come. Our pioneering and inventive spirit has enabled us to be at the forefront of many technological advancements in our nation's history - from the first flight across the Atlantic Ocean, to stealth bombers, to landing on the moon. We look for people who have bold new ideas, courage and a pioneering spirit to join forces to invent the future, and have fun along the way. Our culture thrives on intellectual curiosity, cognitive diversity and bringing your whole self to work — and we have an insatiable drive to do what others think is impossible. Our employees are not only part of history, they're making history. This position is contingent upon program award and the candidate obtaining final clearances and program access(es) within a reasonable period of time as determined by the company. Continued employment thereafter will be subject to maintenance of the level of clearance and program access required for the position in the future. Northrop Grumman in Azusa, CA specializes in Overhead Persistent Infrared (OPIR) space programs that deliver timely, reliable and accurate missile warning and infrared surveillance information to key decision makers. The programs enhance global missile launch detection capability, support the nation's missile defense system, expand the country’s technical intelligence gathering capacity and bolster situational awareness for warfighters on the battlefield. Northrop Grumman in Azusa needs qualified system engineers with an emphasis in applied math to fill Line-of-Sight (LOS), guidance, navigation and control (GNC), image processing, data exploitation algorithms development, testing and tuning needs on OPIR programs. Strong mathematics background in numerical methods and statistics strong desired. Northrop Grumman has many payloads in different stages of their life including proposal and design, requirements and verification, ground testing and calibration, launch and on-orbit testing and calibration, and sustainment and anomaly resolution. Work may include payload design, payload and space vehicle integration and test, analyzing LOS calibration system performance for on-orbit payloads as well as in support of flight readiness test activities for payload and ground systems. Ideal candidate will have a technical understanding of LOS calibration techniques such as mechanical and optical misalignment compensation in a space environment, calibration errors associated with gyros, IMUs, and optical encoders, understanding of orbital mechanics and commonly used orbital reference frames and time systems; a working knowledge of Kalman filtering and least squares estimation techniques is strongly desired.

Requirements

Bachelor's degree in a STEM field plus 12 or more years of relevant work experience, OR a Master’s degree in a STEM field with 10 years of experience, OR a PhD in a STEM field with 8 years of relevant experience
Active U.S. Government Secret Clearance or higher at time of application
Professional or coursework experience in the area of applied math
Experience with typical electro-optical pointing hardware such as encoders, resolvers, inertial measurement units, and motors.
Basic understanding of MATLAB

Nice To Haves

Active Top Secret Clearance with SCI
Experience with pointing and control flight software constructs such as onboard attitude propagation and calibration, motor control, and anomaly, diagnostic, and resolution applications.
Professional experience with applied mathematics for embedded systems and numerical error analysis.
Technical understanding in LOS calibration techniques and working knowledge of Kalman filtering and least squares estimation techniques.
Proficiency in MATLAB and object-oriented programming.
Understanding of payload operations in relation to OPIR.
Familiarity with commonly used tools in both MS Windows & Unix environments.

Responsibilities

Develop, test, and tune algorithms for Line-of-Sight (LOS), guidance, navigation and control (GNC), image processing, and data exploitation on OPIR programs.
Analyze LOS calibration system performance for on-orbit payloads and support flight readiness test activities for payload and ground systems.
Contribute to payload design, and payload and space vehicle integration and test.
Work on various stages of payload life cycle including proposal and design, requirements and verification, ground testing and calibration, launch and on-orbit testing and calibration, and sustainment and anomaly resolution.