GNC Engineer

About EON

EON is building the highest-throughput point-to-point data transport network ever deployed in space. Using free-space laser links in Medium Earth Orbit (MEO), we move petabytes of data between any two points on Earth as an alternative to subsea or terrestrial fiber. EON recently closed a $10.75M seed financing round led by Andreessen Horowitz and General Catalyst in their first-ever co-led space deal. EON is building out of its R&D center in Culver City.

Today, approximately 95% of the global internet travels through a few hundred subsea fiber-optic cables, infrastructure designed in the early 2000s that has gone largely unchanged. Demand for new fiber has never been higher, but laying it is extraordinarily difficult: permits, ocean geology, and geopolitical boundaries make every new cable a years-long, billion-dollar undertaking. That bottleneck is a liability with cables at constant risk of being cut, whether by accident or adversarial action, and no amount of ground-based investment can fully solve it.

The Role

EON's platform has to point where the link needs it, when it needs it, and we have to prove that in simulation long before first light. We are seeking GNC engineers across the pointing chain: platform pointing, acquisition, and the modeling environment that proves the whole chain out. If you run deep in one concentration below we'll put you where your depth matters most, and if you move across GNC you'll help tie the platform-pointing and simulation work together.

Concentrations

1. Pointing, Acquisition, and Tracking (PAT)
You own the platform side of acquisition: the strategy and sequence that finds the other terminal, from open-loop pointing off ephemeris through scan-and-stare search, detection, and coarse track, up to handoff to the Lasercom PAT loop for fine steering and beam lock. You define the acquisition timeline and probability budget and prove both in simulation before flight. You may excel here if you've designed acquisition sequences or closed-loop coarse tracking for line-of-sight systems (lasercom, optical crosslinks, seekers, or similar) and can defend an acquisition probability budget.

2. Flight Dynamics & Navigation
You own where the platform points and how it gets there: orbit and ephemeris, the body-pointing error budget, and the pointing solution the acquisition sequence runs on. You consume the bus attitude solution and layer the pointing and geometry on top, feeding the PAT concentration's acquisition sequence. You may excel here if you've done orbit/ephemeris, pointing-geometry, and attitude work and can own a body-pointing error budget.

3. Simulation & Performance
You own the simulation environment the rest of the pointing team designs and validates against: 6-DOF platform dynamics, orbit and relative geometry, sensor and actuator models, the atmospheric channel, the Monte Carlo campaigns that show the link closes across the envelope, and the hardware-in-the-loop path as components arrive. You may excel here if you've built 6-DOF or Monte Carlo simulation frameworks that other engineers design and validate against.

Not sure, or a strong generalist?
If you move across GNC rather than living in one discipline, that's a seat too. You'll help tie platform pointing and the modeling environment together and grow into the concentration that fits you best.

Responsibilities

• Own a distinct piece of the pointing chain, from orbit and attitude through acquisition handoff, and carry it from concept through first light

• Build and defend the body-pointing and acquisition error budgets against the system-level link budget

• Model, simulate, and analyze platform dynamics, geometry, and pointing performance, and validate models against hardware as it arrives

• Define interfaces with the bus vendor, the Lasercom PAT loop, and the optical seats, driving trade-offs where pointing and optical performance are tightly coupled

• Identify the highest-risk assumptions in the pointing chain early and retire them through simulation, analysis, and hardware-in-the-loop test

• Set and defend technical direction with incomplete data, documenting your reasoning so the team can build on it

Basic Qualifications

• A degree in aerospace engineering, electrical engineering, physics, computer science, or a related technical field

• Fundamentals across GNC (attitude determination and control, orbit/ephemeris, and pointing), with enough depth to reason about the pointing chain end to end

• Programming for modeling, analysis, or test (Python, MATLAB/Simulink, or similar)

• Comfort moving fast and making sound calls without complete data

Preferred Experience

• Lasercom, optical pointing, or precision line-of-sight pointing experience

• Spacecraft ADCS, orbit determination, or flight-dynamics/ephemeris work

• Acquisition sequence design for optical crosslinks or ground-to-space links, including scan strategies and acquisition probability analysis

• 6-DOF, Monte Carlo, or hardware-in-the-loop simulation, including frameworks other engineers design against

• Estimation depth: Kalman filtering, sensor fusion, or state estimation

• Familiarity with astrodynamics and simulation tools (STK, GMAT, FreeFlyer, Basilisk, or similar)

• Experience working to a bus vendor's attitude solution and interface

A note on level and background: We hire this role at all levels, from Associate through Senior and Principal GNC Engineer, and calibrate title, scope, and compensation to your experience. If this list doesn't perfectly match your background still reach out. We are always looking for exceptional people from many disciplines.

What this job is really like

We're a seed-stage company building toward first light on a single-route demonstrator. There's no program office and no requirements team. As part of EON you'll own your piece of the pointing chain, defend your calls on incomplete data, and build the simulations the rest of the team designs against before there's hardware to point. When hardware does arrive, you'll be in the loop with it, not just reviewing plots. If you do your best work inside a large, well-resourced program, this isn't it. If you want your fingerprints on a Tbps-class link from the start, this is it.

Compensation + Benefits

In addition to base salary (to be determined on a case by case basis), compensation for this role includes:

• EON believes the business should be primarily employee owned. In turn, all compensation offers include company stock options for FTEs.

• Comprehensive medical, vision, and dental insurance with significant cost covered by the company for yourself and dependents.

• Paid parental leave and flexible PTO (3 weeks accrued vacation and 10 company holidays per year).

• Relocation assistance to Los Angeles available.

• A real equipment and lab budget.

Location: Culver City, CA (onsite).

Endeavor Optical Network is an Equal Opportunity Employer; employment with EON is governed on the basis of merit, competence and qualifications and will not be influenced in any manner by race, color, religion, gender, national origin/ethnicity, veteran status, disability status, age, sexual orientation, gender identity, marital status, mental or physical disability or any other legally protected status.