Guidance, Navigation, Control / Autopilot Engineering Manager

ABOUT THE TEAM

Our engineering team designs and builds cutting-edge autonomous platforms and AI-driven systems operating in demanding, contested environments. We focus on high reliability, rapid innovation, and cross-functional collaboration across hardware, software, and systems engineering. As a core member of our engineering organization, you will play a pivotal role in shaping our navigation and control architecture while growing an elite team of engineers.

YOUR MISSION

You will own the flight control and navigation stack that keeps our autonomous platforms stable, predictable, and precise — from first power-on to final approach (GNC = Guidance, Navigation, Control) . This isn't a maintenance role: you're building the control and state-estimation foundation that every other system on the platform depends on, while growing a team of engineers who can own that responsibility with you. Success looks like a navigation and control stack that performs reliably under the demanding, contested conditions our systems are built for.

WHAT YOU WILL DO AT STARK

• Lead and grow a fast-expanding team of engineers working on flight control, guidance, and state estimation
• Facilitate and execute the technical direction for the STARK autopilot stack: control theory (PID/LQR/MPC), sensor fusion architecture, state estimation (EKF/UKF), and real-time performance
• Partner with hardware, perception, and systems engineering teams to ensure navigation performance holds end-to-end, not just in isolation
• Own technical roadmap planning for your domain and represent it to your Director and cross-functional stakeholders
• Bring software engineering best practices to the team such as the C4 architecture model, clean code principles and software design patterns
• Moderate the peer review process with the team and ensure knowledge sharing and across different seniorities
• Drive hiring, mentoring, and career development for your team as well as ways of working together
• Report on technical risk, schedule, and capacity to leadership
• Drive test and validation strategy, from simulation and HIL testing through live trials

WHAT YOU BRING TO THE MISSION

• 7+ years of software (robotics) engineering experience in the domain of GNC (guidance, navigation, and control)
• 3+ years in a leadership role (Team Lead, Head of, Engineering Manager, or equivalent) with direct people management experience
• Proven track record of deploying robotics software application into production environment
• Strong knowledge about the GNC domain
• Fluent English; German is a plus

NICE TO HAVE

• Proven track record taking autonomous systems with GNSS-denied navigation system from design to production fielded, flight-tested products
• Experience with PX4, ArduPilot, or comparable open-source autopilot stacks
• Background in aerospace, robotics, or MINT programs
• Exposure to systems operating in contested or degraded environments
• Prior experience scaling a technical team in a startup or fast-growing engineering org
• Familiarity with MIL-STD or STANAG-aligned development practices