Founding GNC Engineer

Orbital Robotics is hiring a founding GNC Engineer who has developed software for robots and/or satellites with backgrounds in orbital mechanics, state estimation, control theory, robot motion planning, computer vision, deep learning, free-flying/free-floating space robot dynamics, and flight software development. You will join a team of world class engineers with experience deploying neural networks on real-world space robot systems.

Responsibilities

• Architect, implement, test, and deploy GNC and robotic control algorithms from whiteboard concepts to production flight software.

• Build high-fidelity simulations that accurately model vehicle and robot dynamics, sensor noise, and environmental perturbations.

• Train, optimize, and deploy control systems and neural networks for real-world systems for trajectory execution and computer vision tasks.

• Integrate and debug GNC and AI algorithms in simulation and on hardware.

Qualifications

• Due to ITAR regulations, must be a U.S. person (citizen, permanent resident, or designated asylee/refugee).

• Bachelor's Degree (or higher) in: Aerospace Engineering, Computer Science, Physics, Robotics, or a related engineering discipline.

• Software development experience in C, C++ and Python

Desired Experience

Spacecraft Systems and GNC

• Space Heritage: You have written code or built hardware that has flown and operated in space.

• Orbital Mechanics: You have a deep understanding of Orbit Determination and Control, and Rendezvous and Proximity Operations (RPO).

• Safety-Critical Software: Experience developing software under rigorous standards such as DO-178C or NPR-7150.2

Robotics and Control

• Robotic Manipulation: Experience leveraging robotic arm kinematics, dynamics, and motion planning to manipulate objects with robotic arms.

• Advanced Control Methods: Practical implementation model predictive control and force-based control strategies including impedance and admittance control.

• Optimization: Proficiency with sequential convex programming, Levenberg-Marquardt, Gauss-Newton, Newton-Raphson, and Gradient Descent algorithms.

Autonomy, AI, and State Estimation

• Estimation and Mapping: Experience deploying state estimation (EKF, UKF), visual odometry, simultaneous localization and mapping, structure from motion and 3D reconstruction algorithms on hardware systems.

• Computer Vision: Experience deploying and verifying video object detection, segmentation, and pose estimation algorithms on hardware systems.

• Deep Learning: Hands-on experience with Deep Reinforcement Learning using PyTorch or alternatives (e.g. Tensorflow) and a proven track record of deploying neural networks to real-world, edge-compute systems.

• AI System Verification: Experience verifying AI controlled hardware systems such as robots or autonomous vehicles.

ITAR Requirements

To conform to U.S. Government export regulations, applicant must be a (i) U.S. citizen or national, (ii) U.S. lawful, permanent resident (aka green card holder), (iii) Refugee under 8 U.S.C. § 1157, or (iv) Asylee under 8 U.S.C. § 1158, or be eligible to obtain the required authorizations from the U.S. Department of State.