Staff Guidance Navigation Control Engineer (TS) Space (Dulles)

RELOCATION ASSISTANCE: Relocation assistance may be available

CLEARANCE TYPE: Top Secret

TRAVEL: Yes, 10% of the Time

Description

At Northrop Grumman, our employees have incredible opportunities to work on revolutionary systems that impact people's lives around the world today, and for generations to come. Our pioneering and inventive spirit has enabled us to be at the forefront of many technological advancements in our nation's history - from the first flight across the Atlantic Ocean, to stealth bombers, to landing on the moon. We look for people who have bold new ideas, courage and a pioneering spirit to join forces to invent the future, and have fun along the way. Our culture thrives on intellectual curiosity, cognitive diversity and bringing your whole self to work — and we have an insatiable drive to do what others think is impossible. Our employees are not only part of history, they're making history.

Northrop Grumman's Space System is seeking a motivated engineer to join the team as a Spacecraft Guidance, Navigation, and Control (GNC) engineer, located in Dulles, Virginia or Space Park, CA. There is no option to telecommute in this position.

GNC is designing, building, testing spacecraft subsystems for a mix of DoD, NASA, and commercial customers. We are leaders in innovative solutions to the rapidly growing/evolving fields of space based autonomous rendezvous and docking and rapid design/production of small satellites. We are seeking a highly-talented and ambitious Engineer to take responsibility for the attitude control solutions that meet our spacecraft requirements.

 

In this role, you will work within the GNC subsystem team and under the supervision of the GNC subsystem lead.  A spacecraft GNC analysis engineer is expected to: 

• Design, analyze, and tune spacecraft attitude and position control loops using time and frequency domain techniques
• Design, analyze, and tune sequential filters (e.g. Kalman filters) for attitude determination and relative navigation
• Design, develop, test and verify flight algorithms for the GNC subsystem and support flight software qualification testing
• Analyze and test the spacecraft GNC subsystem performance using simulations and other analytic tools
• Perform analysis to support early design phase concept development including actuator sizing and placement, sensor selection and placement, and predicted performance assessments
• Develop simulation models for sensors (e.g. star tracker, rate gyro, accelerometer, GPS, magnetometer, sun sensors), actuators (e.g. reaction wheel, torque bar, thruster, CMG), system dynamics (e.g. rigid body, multi-body, orbit mechanics, flexible models, propellant slosh), and the space environment (e.g. atmospheric, solar radiation pressure, third-body gravity, geopotential)

 

Communication is a key element of your role and all GNC engineers are expected to:

• Apply engineering principles, industry standards, company process, and knowledge of vehicle dynamics, aerodynamics, propulsion, classical/modern control, and estimation theory to perform tasks to advanced program/project goals
• Document designs, analysis, and test results and create presentation materials
• Present designs, analysis, and test results to internal and external customers
• Work well within small- to medium-sized groups

Basic Qualifications:

• BS Degree in Engineering, Physics, or Math with at least 12 years of professional experience ( 10 years with Masters, or 8 years with Ph.D). Experience can be considered in lieu of degree
• U.S. citizenship is required for this position, as well as an active Top Secret clearance at time of application.

Preferred Qualifications

• MS or PhD degree in engineering, physics, or math
• Minimum overall GPA of 3.25
• Proficiency in MATLAB/Simulink and C/C++
• Experience in spacecraft GNC subsystem design, analysis, and testing
• Experience implementing GNC algorithms on embedded systems
• Current Top Secret/SCI Clearance preferred