NASA Spacecraft GNC Modeling and Simulation Engineering Lead

NASA Spacecraft GNC Modeling and Simulation Engineering Lead

Job Category: Engineering

Time Type: Full time

Minimum Clearance Required to Start: None

Employee Type: Regular

Percentage of Travel Required: Up to 10%

Type of Travel: Continental US

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The Opportunity:

CACI is looking for a Spacecraft Guidance, Navigation, and Control (GNC) Modeling and Simulation Engineering Lead to work with NASA's human-rated spacecraft systems in support of our Nation’s space exploration initiative at NASA Johnson Space Center in Houston, TX. Candidates should have great interest in spacecraft vehicles and systems, enjoy working with software, and most of all, possess a great passion to contribute to our Nation’s exploration of space.

This position involves technical leadership providing oversight and expertise as part of our space vehicle GNC modeling and simulation engineering team. The individual will lead and directly contribute to the development and design for spacecraft simulations and math models across multiple domains with a focus on spacecraft GNC. The individual will develop high-fidelity simulations and math models for NASA space vehicles, and will utilize those models for engineering analysis.  This includes integration, verification, and validation for simulations and math models on Linux PC platforms using the Trick© Simulation Environment and Development Toolkit developed by CACI. The ideal candidate has leadership experience and an educational background with spacecraft domain expertise in the following areas: Guidance, Navigation, and Control (GNC); Environment Modeling (aerodynamics, solar pressure, and thermal); Orbital Dynamics. 

The engineer in this role will lead a team of skilled engineers to identify and implement improvements to math models and simulation scenarios, execute engineering analysis, analyze simulation data to evaluate system characteristics and performance, and support continual enhancements to the simulation architecture. Tasks may include but are not limited to developing standalone and integrated simulations, GNC models, and avionics models.

This position requires a self-motivated, capable person with strong verbal and written communication skills. In addition to outstanding technical expertise, the individual must be very people savvy with strong customer relationship skills, possess a positive team-player attitude, and be flexible and willing to take on new assignments and responsibilities as they arise. Finally, the most qualified candidate will be an articulate speaker able to communicate complex technical ideas in a convincing manner, must share our passion for our Nation's Space Program, and share in the excitement of developing the next human-rated space vehicles.

Responsibilities:

• Collaborate with NASA customers to support, monitor, and define task requirements and deliverables.
• Maintain a big picture view of the entire simulation development process to ensure that tasks are appropriately scoped and prioritized.
• Manage projects and coordinate tasks across the development team.
• Provide mentorship to junior engineers and support team development and training.
• Design and develop of math models and simulations for spacecraft systems and subsystems including hardware and software.
• Develop simulation scenarios to test nominal and off-nominal spacecraft operations.
• Provide oversight and execute simulation and math model verification and validation.
• Perform analysis on simulation data to investigate spacecraft system performance.
• Present analysis results and their impact on spacecraft performance, vehicle design and mission design to customers and stakeholders.
• Perform leadership duties including timekeeping approval, performance feedback, and career counseling.

Qualifications:

Required: 

• U.S. Citizen or Permanent Resident for access to USG Facilities.
• B.S. in Aerospace or Computer Engineering, Computer Science, or related disciplines with experience in software development, including overall project design, programming, testing, verification, validation, and documentation.
• Experience leading a software development team with a track record of producing deliverables on schedule.
• Experience with orbital mechanics, particularly rendezvous and proximity operations.
• Experience with Spacecraft GNC.
• Strong computer and software development skills using C/C++ and Python.
• Experience with software version control tools such as git.
• Strong computer and software skills in both Linux and Windows environments.
• Ability to manage multiple priorities with minim