GNC Engineer (Aerospace)

Location: Burlingame, California, United States; on-site

Salary: $170,000–$200,000 per year, plus equity

Company

Xona develops satellite-based navigational intelligence and real-time, centimeter-level positioning through its Pulsar PNT infrastructure in Low Earth Orbit.

What you will do

• Develop, maintain, and validate nonlinear six-degree-of-freedom digital twins of the spacecraft bus.
• Build flexible-body, structural-dynamics, vehicle-dynamics, sensor, actuator, and environmental-disturbance models.
• Apply system identification and numerical and analytical methods to improve model fidelity and derive linear approximations.
• Develop simulation capabilities for control design, Monte Carlo analysis, software-in-the-loop, and hardware-in-the-loop testing.
• Support model-based software development, verification, documentation, and technical reviews.
• Collaborate with GNC, structural, and test engineers across the vehicle development lifecycle.

Requirements

• Experience developing nonlinear six-degree-of-freedom simulation platforms for aerospace vehicles.
• Experience modeling and validating aerospace vehicle dynamics, sensors, actuators, environmental effects, and other subsystems.
• Experience with flexible-body and structural-dynamics models.
• Strong knowledge of rigid-body dynamics, control systems, numerical methods, linear systems, and system identification.
• Experience with model-based software development and verification.
• Strong proficiency in MATLAB, C++, Git, and Linux.

Nice to have

• Master’s degree or Ph.D. in aerospace engineering, controls, robotics, applied mathematics, or a related field.
• Experience with MATLAB/Simulink, automatic code generation, modal analysis, flexible-mode identification, and flight validation.
• Experience with simulation correlation, uncertainty and sensitivity analysis, continuous integration, and automated testing.

Culture & Benefits

• Full-time employment with an equity component.
• Commitment to diversity and an inclusive work environment.
• U.S. roles are subject to space-technology export regulations; candidates must be U.S. citizens, lawful permanent residents, or other protected individuals under 8 U.S.C. 1324b(a)(3).