Senior GNC AutoPilot

About the role

You will own the end-to-end guidance, navigation, and controls (GN&C) architecture for the Sceptre vehicle, defining how the system senses its state, decides actions, and executes them safely across all flight regimes. You are responsible for designing, analyzing, and certifying the flight control system so that it meets stringent performance, stability, and reliability targets from gun launch through hypersonic cruise. You will act as the primary technical authority on vehicle dynamics, ensuring that control laws are robust, verifiable, and aligned with system-level requirements. In this role, you will mentor junior engineers, drive technical decision-making during critical design reviews, and serve as the main interface between analysis, simulation, and embedded software teams. You will directly shape the vehicle's aerodynamic configuration and control logic to ensure mission success in the most demanding operational environments.

Key facts

What you'll do

• Lead the design of the flight control system architecture and autopilot logic for Sceptre, covering the full trajectory from gun-launch transient through supersonic and hypersonic ramjet cruise.
• Perform detailed stability analysis using available aerodynamic databases, define stability margin requirements, and ensure the vehicle remains dynamically stable across the entire flight envelope.
• Analyze gun-launch transient dynamics, including muzzle exit stability, setback loads, and bore-rider interactions, and define how control surfaces behave during this critical phase.
• Define control surface geometry, placement, and actuation system requirements, including hinge moment, torque, bandwidth, and slew rate, based on aerodynamic and structural constraints.
• Develop and validate control laws in MATLAB and Simulink, translate them into requirements for embedded flight software, and ensure correct implementation in the target hardware.
• Lead control system performance verification activities, assessing closed-loop bandwidth, disturbance rejection margins, and robustness in the presence of modeling uncertainties.
• Coordinate wind tunnel test planning to obtain control surface effectiveness and dynamic derivative data, and use test results to refine models and control designs.
• Own the technical content of GN&C autopilot deliverables for milestone reviews, ensuring that all documentation is complete, accurate, and defensible.
• Build and maintain linear analysis tools to evaluate stability margins, control bandwidth, and control authority across the full operating envelope.
• Conduct nonlinear 6-DOF simulation of the closed-loop flight control system to evaluate autopilot robustness, performance, and fault tolerance.
• Analyze gun-launch and muzzle exit dynamics in detail, specifying control surface deployment timing and authority limits to manage transient loads and ensure safe separation.
• Derive actuator bandwidth, slew rate, and torque requirements by combining aerodynamic hinge moment data with closed-loop performance targets and stability limits.
• Develop gain scheduling logic that provides consistent control performance from subsonic through hypersonic speeds, and validate smooth transitions between gain sets.
• Perform sensitivity and robustness analysis of the control law with respect to errors and uncertainty in aerodynamics, mass properties, propulsion, sensors, and actuators.
• Support structural dynamics mode identification from test data and update structural notch filter designs to preserve stability margins in the presence of unmodeled dynamics.
• Develop and maintain the flight control system requirements document, ensuring traceability and proper flow-down to autopilot algorithms and flight software specifications.
• Interface closely with the aerodynamics team to define aero database formats, coverage, and uncertainty bounds needed for control law development and verification.
• Coordinate with the structures team on control surface structural design, hinge line loading, and fin deployment mechanisms to ensure compatibility with control demands.
• Collaborate with the propulsion team to assess ramjet throttle-body aerodynamic interactions and center-of-gravity shifts, and to evaluate their impact on stability and control.
• Support range safety planning by defining control-system-related safing strategies and flight termination logic to protect personnel and assets during testing.
• Participate in design reviews, where you will evaluate engineering changes for their effects on stability, controllability, and overall system performance.

Requirements

• Hold a Bachelor of Science or Master of Science in Aerospace Engineering or Mechanical Engineering from an accredited institution.
• Possess 8 or more years of direct experience in flight dynamics and control law design for guided munitions, missiles, or high-performance aerospace vehicles.
• Demonstrate proven expertise in classical and modern control techniques, including but not limited to PID, LQR, H-infinity, mu-synthesis, gain scheduling, and model-based control approaches.
• Show a strong background in 6-DOF simulation and model integration, with experience using these tools to evaluate and refine control law performance.
• Be highly proficient in MATLAB and Simulink for control design, analysis, and simulation, and capable of translating high-level algorithms into embedded software requirements.
• Must be a U.S. citizen and eligible to obtain and maintain a U.S. government security clearance.
• Have a track record of defining and executing test programs, including wind tunnel test planning, data acquisition, and result interpretation for control system validation.
• Exhibit strong analytical skills, with the ability to interpret complex aerodynamic and dynamic data, diagnose issues, and propose technically sound solutions under tight schedules.
• Communicate effectively with multidisciplinary teams, including aerodynamics, structures, propulsion, software, and range safety, to ensure coherent and executable system designs.
• Demonstrate ownership and initiative, taking responsibility for challenging technical problems and driving projects to successful completion in a high-stakes, deadline-driven environment.

Nice to have

• Experience with real-time simulation hardware-in-the-loop testing of flight control systems.
• Familiarity with formal methods or verification tools for control systems safety assurance.
• Background in ramjet propulsion aerodynamics and its integration with vehicle control.
• Experience in defense programs requiring U.S. government security clearance at the Secret or Top Secret level.

Practical notes

This is a full-time, on-site position based in Tucson, Arizona. The role may require travel to test facilities, range sites, and customer locations as needed. U.S. citizenship and the ability to obtain and maintain a U.S. government security clearance are mandatory for employment. Applicants must meet the experience and educational requirements as stated, and only candidates who satisfy these criteria will be considered.