Stratolaunch

Designs, manufactures, and launches aerospace vehicles.

Technical Staff - Guidance Navigation and Controls

Flight Dynamics & GNCConfirmed live in the last 24 hours

Full-timeMojave, CA, USA$193k - $256k

About the Job

Requirements

In-depth expertise and experience in deriving and implementing guidance, navigation, and controls architectures.
Demonstrated ability as a technical leader and to apply technical expertise to solve high-impact problems.
Excellent verbal and written communication skills, including the ability to convey complex technical information to diverse audiences.
Familiarity with relevant industry and military standards and regulatory specifications.
Experience proposing and leading internal research and development projects.
Ability to interact with customers and external stakeholders.
Demonstrated experience applying analytical and critical thinking skills to solve multidisciplinary, open-ended engineering problems.
Ability to work independently in a dynamic environment to achieve business goals.
U.S. citizenship and ability to obtain a Department of War security clearance.
Experience with embedded systems and real-time operating system or field-programmable gate array implementation of algorithms.
Ability to derive guidance, navigation, and controls requirements based on vehicle constraints and mission objectives.
Ability to support system sizing and trade study activities based on mission objectives.
Familiarity with estimation and data fusion architecture theory and application.
Familiarity with theory and hardware for air vehicle navigation, including GPS, terrain contour matching, and magnetic navigation.
Familiarity with autopilot architecture theory and application.
Ability to objectively assess multidisciplinary data used in developing guidance, navigation, and controls algorithms.
Experience using flight test data to quantitatively reduce uncertainties and update models.
Strong first principles in flight dynamics, propulsion, controls, and estimation techniques.
Proficiency with Microsoft Office, including Word, Excel, and Outlook.
A bachelor's, master's, or doctoral degree in a related discipline from an accredited institution, with 15 or more years of relevant experience, or an equivalent combination of education and experience.
The position may involve operating company vehicles as part of assigned duties.

Responsibilities

Provide company-level technical discipline leadership in guidance, navigation, and controls spanning theory to hardware.
Enable engineering through the creation of technical standards, best practices, and common tool chains in areas of expertise.
Support program execution by leading teams through or participating in high-impact problem-solving activities, including Failure Review Boards, root cause and corrective action, and tiger teams.
Develop and maintain engineering capability roadmaps and lead the realization of those capabilities.
Propose and lead internal research and development projects to generate intellectual property and enable future business success.
Support white papers, proposals, and other front-end business efforts.
Mentor and develop more junior colleagues.
Support recruiting and hiring activities.

Desired Qualifications

Working knowledge of systems engineering principles and best practices, especially requirements verification through test and model-based systems engineering.
Experience owning and implementing technical roadmaps.
Experience supporting hypersonic vehicle development programs culminating in flight testing.
Experience developing guidance, navigation, and controls architectures for high-supersonic or hypersonic systems.
Ability to aid hardware-in-the-loop development across hardware and software domains.
Experience working on high-speed airbreathing systems with hysteretic, multimodal behavior.
Experience developing high-performance, extensible interfaces in hardware and software.
Familiarity with less common navigation aiding signals and approaches, including signals of opportunity, simultaneous localization and mapping, and celestial navigation.
Experience using adjoint methods to analytically derive requirements.
Familiarity with control system margins, including gain, phase, and vector margins, and performance metrics such as time constant, undershoot, and overshoot, including how to analyze and optimize them.
Familiarity with direct, indirect, and heuristic optimization methods and state-of-the-art algorithms.
Experience with requirements and approaches for safety-critical software and algorithms.
Familiarity with, and ability to adapt to, industry-standard version control, programming languages, and tool chains, including Git, C++, MATLAB/Simulink, and Python.
Active Department of War security clearance.

Stratolaunch accelerates the development of next-generation aerospace and defense technologies through reusable hypersonic flight testing. Our autonomous, air-launched Talon-A vehicles provide access to operationally realistic flight environments at speeds exceeding Mach 5, delivering critical data that helps customers validate system performance and advance technologies toward deployment. Our team brings together expertise in engineering, manufacturing, and flight operations to solve complex challenges and advance capabilities essential to national security.

Stratolaunch is seeking a subject matter expert in Guidance Navigation and Controls (GNC) to join the Technical Staff in Engineering. Members of the Technical Staff at Stratolaunch are the company’s foremost functional area experts, providing company-level technical leadership as they solve today’s execution problems and develop innovative solutions for the future. The successful candidate will have demonstrated leadership capability and a track record applying deep technical expertise in architecture derivation, algorithm development, and hardware implementation to solve practical engineering problems.

Essential Responsibilities

Provide company-level technical discipline leadership in GNC spanning theory to hardware
Enable world class engineering through the creation of technical standards, best practices, and common tool chains in domain(s) of expertise
Support program execution by leading teams through and/or participating in high-impact problem solutions (e.g. Failure Review Boards, RCCA, Tiger Teams)
Develop and maintain engineering capability roadmaps and lead the realization of those capabilities
Propose and lead Internal Research and Development projects to generate intellectual property and enable future business success
Support white papers, proposals, and other front end of the business efforts
Engage in in mentoring and developing more junior colleagues
Support recruiting and hiring activities

Qualifications and Skills

To perform this job successfully, an individual must be able to perform each essential responsibility satisfactorily. The requirements listed below are representative of the knowledge, skill, and/or ability required. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.

Required Qualifications

In-depth expertise and experience in deriving and implementing GNC architectures
Demonstrated ability as a technical leader
Demonstrated ability applying technical expertise to solve high-impact problems
Excellent verbal and written communication skills: Capable of conveying complex technical information to diverse audiences
Familiarity with relevant industry and military standards and regulatory specifications
Experience proposing and leading IRAD projects
Ability to interact with customers and/or external stakeholders
Demonstrated experience applying analytical and critical thinking skills to solve multi-disciplinary, open-ended engineering problems
Ability to work independently in a dynamic environment to achieve business goals
US Citizen with the ability to obtain a DOW security clearance
Experience with embedded systems and RTOS / FPGA implementation of algorithms
Ability to derive GNC requirements based on vehicle constraints and mission objectives
Ability to support system sizing and trade study activities based upon mission objectives
Familiarity with estimation & data fusion architecture theory and application
Familiarity with theory and hardware for air vehicle navigation (GPS, TERCOM, Magnetic)
Familiarity with autopilot architecture theory and application
Ability to objectively assess multidisciplinary data utilized in development of GNC algorithms
Experience utilizing flight test data to quantitatively reduce uncertainties and update models
Strong first principles in flight dynamics, propulsion, controls, and estimation techniques

Required Computer Skills

MS Office (Word, Excel, Outlook)

Preferred Qualifications

Working knowledge of systems engineering principles and best practices, especially relating to requirements verification through test and MBSE
Experience owning and implementing technical roadmaps
Experience supporting hypersonic vehicle development programs culminating in flight testing
Experience developing GNC architectures for high supersonic or hypersonic systems
Ability to aid in HWIL development across both hardware and software domains
Experience working on high speed airbreathing system with hysteretic, multi-modal behavior
Experience developing high performance extensible interfaces both in hardware and software
Familiarity with less common navigation aiding signals and approaches (SoOP, SLAM, Celestial)
Experience utilizing adjoint methods to analytically derive requirements
Familiarity with control system margins (gain, phase, vector) and performance (time const, undershoot, overshoot) metrics and how to appropriately analyze and optimize
Familiarity with direct, indirect, and heuristic optimization methods and SOTA algorithms
Experience with requirements and approaches for safety critical software and algorithms
Familiarity with and ability to adapt to industry standard version control and programming languages and toolchains (Git, C++, MATLAB/Simulink, Python, etc.).
Active DOW security clearance

Education and Experience

Technical Staff ($193,000-$256,000): Bachelor’s degree, Master’s or Doctoral degree (graduate degree preferred) in related discipline from an accredited institution and 15+ years relevant experience or equivalent combination of education and experience

Special remarks regarding work environment, if applicable

Position based in Mojave, CA. Consideration for hybrid (partial remote/on-site work) work arrangements for well-qualified candidates may be provided.
9/80 schedule

#LI-onsite
#LI-AM1

Base salary and leveling are established on a case-by-case basis. We consider several factors to ensure a competitive offer, including your location, educational background, and a comprehensive assessment of the skills and experience demonstrated during your interviews.

Benefits and our location(s):

Healthcare (medical, dental, vision, prescription drugs)
Paid Maternity and Parental Leave
50% company match per contributed dollar into 401(k) savings plan, up to $11,500
Tuition reimbursement

This position may involve the operation of company vehicles as part of assigned duties.

Mojave Air & Spaceport is located just outside of Lancaster/Palmdale and is only 95 miles north of Los Angeles. The area offers both affordability and central access to a variety of California's best attractions and landmarks.

Not much for the outdoors and prefer the city life? You’re within a half day’s drive or less of Los Angeles, San Diego, Las Vegas, and San Francisco where you can find a variety of live entertainment, museums, tours, and historical sight-seeing. Theme parks are in abundance, with Six Flags Magic Mountain, Disneyland, and Knotts Berry Farm ready to meet the needs of rollercoaster thrill seekers.

Food and drink fanatics are in a haven of delectable choices. Wine aficionados will also find easy access to some of the state’s best vino in Paso Robles, Santa Ynez, and even more locally in Tehachapi and Agua Dulce. Beer fanatics will find some of the best West Coast IPAs at Bravery and Lucky Luke’s in Lancaster. Any food option you crave is covered, and we always recommend the authentic and fresh Mexican food that you won’t find anywhere else in the United States.

Stratolaunch is an equal opportunity employer that values diversity at our company. We encourage people from all walks of life to apply, without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, protected veteran status, disability or any other characteristic protected by law. Our management team does not tolerate discrimination or harassment at any point during our employees’ and applicants’ time with us, especially with respect to recruitment, hiring, placement, promotion, transfer, training, compensation, benefits, employee activities, and general treatment during employment. For purposes of transparency, U.S. Citizenship may be required for some positions with a government clearance and certain other restricted positions.

Equal Employment Opportunity is the Law :

https://www.dol.gov/ofccp/regs/compliance/posters/pdf/eeopost.pdf

About the Company

Stratolaunch

Designs, manufactures, and launches aerospace vehicles.

Stratolaunch designs, manufactures, and launches aerospace vehicles and technologies to meet national needs for reliable, routine access to space and to advance the United States’ ability to design and operate hypersonic vehicles. Its offerings span the full end-to-end process of aerospace programs, from initial design through manufacturing to launch operations. The company differentiates itself by focusing on practical space access and the development of hypersonic capabilities, aiming to support national security and defense needs rather than pursuing consumer or commercial applications. The goal is to provide dependable ways to reach space regularly while pushing forward the nation’s hypersonic design and operational expertise.

Company size: 201-500
Company stage: Not listed
Total funding: Not listed
Headquarters: Mojave, CA
Founded: 2011

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