Guidance, Navigation, and Controls Engineer

Guidance, Navigation, and Controls Engineer

2 days ago Be among the first 25 applicants

This range is provided by Wardstone (YC F25). Your actual pay will be based on your skills and experience — talk with your recruiter to learn more.

$/yr - $/yr

We are looking for a Guidance, Navication, and Controls Engineer to build and own the entire guidance, navigation, and control stack for Wardstone’s interceptors. You will design the necessary development tools and flight control algorithms to ensure that Wardstone’s interceptors hit their target.

This is a highly cross-functional role. You will work closely with sensing, actuation, and propulsion engineers to deliver a performant autopilot.

• Design guidance laws for midcourse and terminal homing under high-speed, non-linear dynamics.
• Implement proportional navigation, augmented PN, pursuit/lead guidance, and/or optimal control methods.
• Develop intercept prediction algorithms using sensed tracking and state estimation inputs.

• Design and tune control loops for aerodynamic surfaces, thrust vectoring, or impulse-based actuators.
• Model actuator bandwidth, latency, saturation, and uncertainties.
• Implement robust control strategies for high-G, high-rate maneuvers.

• Implement EKFs/UKFs for fusing IR sensor data, IMU, GPS, and onboard timing signals.
• Build prediction and filtering pipelines that operate reliably under noise, jitter, and thermal effects.
• Develop relative navigation and target-state estimation algorithms.

• Build and maintain high-fidelity 6
  
  DOF simulations of interceptor dynamics.
• Integrate aerodynamic models (> Mach
  1), control response, propulsion events, and sensor models.
• Run Monte Carlo and worst-case analyses to drive design decisions.

• Develop GNC software that runs on embedded hardware with hard real-time constraints.
• Conduct hardware-in-the-loop tests with scene generators and real sensors.
• Support ground-based intercept tests, including flight software tuning, data collection, and analysis.

• Influence the Vehicle Design through cont rollability requirements.
• Work with perception engineers to integrate vision-based tracking into guidance algorithms.
• Work with propulsion engineers on control authority, ΔV budgets, and impulse timing.
• Work with embedded engineers to implement deterministic and reliable real-time GNC pipelines.

• B.S. or M.S. in Aerospace Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Robotics, Controls, or similar.
• Deep understanding of classical and modern control theory.
• Experience building 6
  
  DOF flight simulations (MATLAB, Simulink, Python, C++).
• Strong background in state estimation, nonlinear dynamics, filtering, or guidance algorithms.
• Hands‑on experience tuning controllers for UAVs, rockets, missiles, or autonomous systems.
• Familiarity with coordinate frames, quaternion math, and navigation transformations.
• US CITIZENSHIP REQUIRED

• Experience with high-speed interceptors, hypersonics, or missile guidance.
• Familiarity with aerodynamics, actuator modeling, or impulse-based control.
• Experience with optimal control (MPC, LQR variants, differential games).
• Experience with embedded real-time systems, RTOS, or high-rate control loops.
• Experience integrating perception (IR/EO, CV algorithms) into closed‑loop guidance.
• Experience with MIL-STD flight hardware, environmental testing, or flight qualification.

• Entry level

• Full-time

• Engineering and Information Technology

• Defense and Space Manufacturing

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