Senior Manager, GNC

Capella Space stands at the forefront of synthetic aperture radar (SAR) satellite technology and signal intelligence. We provide customers in governments, academia, and commercial sectors with reliable information that enables unparalleled understanding of the world. Our mission is centered on delivering timely and reliable Earth imagery, supporting diverse applications in defense & intelligence, disaster response, energy, environmental monitoring and more. Utilizing cutting-edge technology, Capella Space designs, manufactures and operates an advanced constellation of SAR imaging satellites. Our market-leading SAR satellites are complemented by an unmatched data infrastructure and automated ordering and delivery platform for fast, reliable insights where and when customers need it most. 

Recognized for our technological prowess, Capella Space was honored as one of the 10 most innovative companies in Space in 2023 by FASTCOMPANY. Capella Space is an internationally trusted Earth Observation data provider, working closely with the U.S. Space Systems Command, U.S. Space Force, NASA, U.S. Air Force, U.S. Navy, U.S. National Reconnaissance Office, the Canadian Government and more to make unclassified, high-resolution SAR data more accessible.  

What Makes Capella Unique? 

Capella Space is a highly collaborative team environment, providing an opportunity to work with some of the brightest minds in the space industry, though no prior space experience is needed.  We’re looking for people excited about tackling seemingly impossible challenges, learning new skills and concepts, and helping each other achieve success. Our mission and our products are meant to understand the whole world and help everyone in it - regardless of race, creed, or any other distinction. We encourage you to bring your unique perspective to help make us stronger, including applications from those who are traditionally underrepresented in tech. 

About the Role & Team

We are looking for an experienced technical Senior Manager for our Guidance, Navigation, and Control (GNC) team consisting of Flight Dynamics, Attitude Determination and Control Systems (ADCS) and Propulsion Systems. In this role you will lead a small team of highly specialized engineers who collectively are responsible for all aspects related to pointing knowledge and control algorithms, ADCS and propulsion hardware sizing and selection, maneuvering & orbit control, formation flying, orbit determination, orbit propagation, collision avoidance, lifetime analysis and de-orbit of a constellation of satellites.

As Senior Manager of GNC, you will act as the technical leader in this domain at Capella. You will be mentor and people manager while providing technical expertise and contributions to various projects within the company. You will guide the team through technical challenges, help develop the team’s skills and enable growth of the team – taking on new challenges (such as formation flying & autonomous control) as the company evolves and our opportunities diversify. You will lead the development of a technology roadmap related to this domain in collaboration with senior company leaders and in-line with company strategic objectives and projects.

As a leader in your field you will represent the company’s expertise related to GNC in front of customers and partners, in public settings (such as conferences) as appropriate, and in proposals.

Role Responsibilities

• Lead the growing Capella GNC team.
• Manage and mentor engineers on the team.
• Provide technical expertise related to GNC within the team and on projects throughout the company.
• Perform resource allocation across company projects
• Define and provide accountability for short-term (quarterly) and long-term (annual) team goals that support company objectives
• Collaborate with and support adjacent teams with operationalizing GNC & Flight Dynamics systems & CONOPS. Support and define on-call support rotation for spacecraft operations.
• Design and implement orbit determination, orbit propagation, and automated thrust maneuvering in an operational system
• Design and implement state estimators and control algorithms for the localization and pointing of radar-imaging spacecraft 
• Support trade studies and concept development for future missions through constellation design, defining system performance requirements to satisfy high level mission objectives, and conducting hardware system sizing, design, and vendor selection
• Manage ADCS and Propulsion vendors and stay up to date on market offerings
• Define & implement the technology roadmap related to GNC in collaboration with senior leaders and in-