GNC Engineer, ADCS (Starshield)

Hawthorne, CAfull time

On Site

$125k–$150k

H1B: no

SpaceX GNC Engineer for Starshield's Attitude Determination and Control System (ADCS) focusing on spacecraft attitude dynamics, control, and software development. Responsible for designing and implementing satellite GNC software and conducting high fidelity simulations and hardware-in-the-loop testing.

Responsibilities

Design and implementation of satellite GNC software that can facilitate all mission concepts of operations across all phases of flight, including off-nominal/contingency scenarios
Design of concepts of operations (CONOPs) that intelligently balance thermal constraints, power budgets, momentum management, satellite-to-ground and satellite-to-satellite contact, and payload-pointing needs
Design, development, and flight software implementation of onboard GNC algorithms to achieve a high level of vehicle autonomy and fault tolerance while providing adequate navigation and control performance
Update and maintain GNC software configurations for a variety of minor satellite design revisions and mission sets
High fidelity time domain 6DOF modeling and simulation of satellite dynamics, sensors, actuators, algorithms, and all of their interactions
Monte Carlo simulation analysis to validate safe and reliable flight and quantify navigation and control performance
Heavy involvement in integrated hardware-in-the-loop (HITL) testing efforts, including but not limited to test case design, data review automation, and modeling fidelity improvements
Navigation filtering and control systems design and optimization
Spacecraft design activities related to ADCS sensor and actuator hardware sizing and layout
Develop, validate, and improve upon complex sensor, actuator, and dynamics models for use in 6DOF simulation analysis
Maintain a robust and tight interface with other disciplines and subsystems (e.g. thermal, power, communications) to ensure a good and consistent system-level design

Qualification

Software development experience in C++Ability to work in a fast-pacedDemonstrated experience owning

Required

Bachelor's degree in aerospace engineering, computer science/software engineering, or an engineering discipline
Software development experience in C++, Python, and/or MATLAB/Simulink
Experience with attitude determination and/or state estimation algorithms

Preferred

Master's or PhD in aerospace engineering, computer science/software engineering, or an engineering discipline
Basic familiarity with the GNC discipline and associated technical fundamentals
Extremely strong technical fundamentals in the areas of spacecraft attitude and orbit dynamics, navigation filtering and/or control systems design
Capable of identifying and solving complex problems with a high degree of autonomy
Willingness to take on a large scope of ownership over complex problems and solve them in a multi-disciplinary fashion, striving for system and mission-level optimality
Ability to work in a fast-paced, dynamic engineering environment, with a steadfast commitment to continuous improvement
Demonstrated experience owning, designing, testing, and flying real-world GNC engineering solutions, preferably on space vehicles
Experience with on-orbit space vehicle operations, commanding, debugging, and use of flight telemetry to track performance metrics and validate simulation models