Navigation Engineer (UAV)

Location: Nottingham, United Kingdom; hybrid working model. Up to 8 weeks per year of teleworking outside the usual geographical area.

Company

hirify.global is an established technology organisation working on navigation, autonomous systems, and resilient positioning, navigation, and timing technologies.

What you will do

• Develop guidance, navigation, and control algorithms for unmanned aerial vehicle platforms.
• Configure and tune flight controllers and integrate open-source flight stacks with hirify.global software.
• Take control algorithms from concept through flight testing and analyze flight logs.
• Develop autonomous UAV behaviours and contribute to real-world aircraft performance.
• Support work on multi-sensor fusion, positioning from space signals of opportunity, modelling and simulation, AI tools, and interference detection.

Requirements

• Degree in aerospace, physics, or another relevant STEM field.
• Knowledge of guidance, navigation and control or control systems fundamentals.
• Programming experience in Python and/or C/C++.
• Experience with flight log analysis and practical flight testing.
• Knowledge of multi-sensor fusion and state estimation, including vision, INS/GNSS, or signals of opportunity.
• Hands-on experience with an open-source flight stack such as ArduPilot, PX4, or Betaflight, including configuration, parameter tuning, and MAVLink.
• Existing UK security clearance at SC level or above, or eligibility and willingness to obtain it within 12 months, is required.

Nice to have

• Multi-rotor or fixed-wing airframe build and integration experience.
• 3D printing and CAD experience for airframes, mounts, and enclosures.
• Knowledge of drone electronics, computer vision, or camera-based navigation.
• Experience integrating UAV autonomy or payload APIs such as DJI SDK or MAVSDK.

Culture & Benefits

• Hybrid working with up to 8 weeks per year of teleworking outside the usual geographical area.
• Personalized career plan, professional development, training, and language learning support.
• Competitive compensation with ongoing reviews and flexible compensation options.
• Wellbeing programme including health and dental benefits, free fruit, and coffee.
• Equal-opportunity and inclusion-focused recruitment.

Hiring process

• Recruitment includes telephone and personal contact with the talent acquisition team, conducted face-to-face or online.