Senior Controls Engineer, Optical Beam Pointing (Aerospace)

Location: Long Beach, California, United States

Salary: $148,000–$222,000 USD annually

Company

hirify.global develops rockets and space systems, including the Terran R launch vehicle and interplanetary science missions.

What you will do

• Own the design, development, and implementation of optical beam pointing and control algorithms for the 2028 Mars Orbiter mission.
• Integrate optical sensor measurements, gyroscopic data, spacecraft attitude estimates, and fast steering mirror controls for precision optical communications.
• Develop sensor fusion, state estimation, acquisition, tracking, and pointing-stability methods that reject spacecraft jitter and environmental disturbances.
• Define system requirements, interfaces, verification methods, control models, simulations, and analysis tools.
• Collaborate with communications, GNC, spacecraft systems, and flight software teams on architectures and interfaces.
• Support prototyping, hardware-in-the-loop testing, ground verification, commissioning, on-orbit operations, performance analysis, and anomaly resolution.

Requirements

• BS, MS, or PhD in aerospace engineering, electrical engineering, mechanical engineering, control systems, physics, or a related technical discipline, plus 3+ years of relevant experience.
• Strong knowledge of classical and modern control theory, state-space methods, and nonlinear control.
• Experience with spacecraft guidance, navigation, and control systems for launch vehicles, satellites, or related aerospace applications.
• Experience developing sensor fusion and state-estimation algorithms, including Kalman filtering or observer design.
• Strong software development skills in at least one high-level language such as C++ or Rust and one scripting language such as Python or MATLAB.
• Ability to own end-to-end technical solutions, work autonomously, and communicate requirements and tradeoffs across disciplines.

Nice to have

• Graduate degree in engineering or physics.
• Technical leadership experience in spacecraft or satellite development.
• Experience with image processing, photon-counting detectors, flight software, fast steering mirrors, precision actuation, gyroscopes, IMUs, or ADCS.
• Experience with MATLAB/Simulink, spacecraft testing, integration, flight operations, deep-space missions, or optical communications.
• Startup or agile development experience.

Culture & Benefits

• High-autonomy environment focused on ownership, technical rigor, and cross-functional collaboration.
• Competitive salary and equity.
• Generous paid time off and sick leave.
• Parental leave and an annual learning and development stipend.
• Equal opportunity workplace with reasonable accommodation support.