Senior GNC Engineer (Spacecraft)

Location: Los Angeles, CA, United States

Base salary: $160,000–$235,000 per year, plus equity.

Company

hirify.global develops high-power satellite platforms for commercial and U.S. government missions from LEO to deep space, with plans to scale production to 100 satellites per year.

What you will do

• Drive spacecraft GNC architecture and perform detailed trade studies for orbital guidance, control, and attitude and orbit estimation.
• Develop navigation algorithms for LEO, MEO, GEO, cislunar, and interplanetary missions.
• Develop trajectory design, mission analysis, controls analysis, modeling, and 6-DOF simulation tools.
• Update the GNC stack and simulation based on system lessons learned and design-build-test-fly feedback.
• Own portions of GNC flight software and contribute code to the 6-DOF simulator.
• Support launch and on-orbit operations for the Trinity mission and help build the GNC organization through recruiting, hiring, and mentoring.

Requirements

• Experience implementing estimation algorithms in flight and ground software, including Kalman, Extended Kalman, and Unscented Kalman Filters.
• Experience with Monte Carlo-based and covariance analyses.
• Experience verifying and validating GNC flight software in an integrated environment using 6-DOF simulation and HITL testing.
• Experience with GNC sensor sizing, selection, and system design.
• Experience using Python, Julia, C/C++, Rust, or Matlab for algorithm development, implementation, and simulation.
• The role requires eligibility to access U.S. export-controlled information: the hired candidate must be a U.S. person under ITAR or otherwise eligible for a federally issued export-control license.

Nice to have

• System identification using on-orbit data.
• Early-stage spacecraft conceptual or clean-sheet design experience.
• Breadth in control algorithm development.
• Reaction wheel, control moment gyroscope, or thruster sizing and algorithm implementation experience.
• Trajectory analysis, modeling, optimization, and mission design experience for GEO, cislunar, or interplanetary missions.

Culture & Benefits

• Full-time employment with equity participation.
• Comprehensive benefits including paid time off, medical, dental and vision coverage, life insurance, and paid parental leave.
• Reasonable accommodations are available during the application or interview process.
• Non-traditional career paths are encouraged, and candidates may apply without every preferred qualification.