Flight Controls Engineer

Job Summary

General Atomics Aeronautical Systems, Inc. (GA-ASI) is a leader in remotely piloted aircraft and tactical reconnaissance radars. They are seeking a Flight Controls Engineer in San Diego (Poway, CA).

Responsibilities

• Perform GNC-related tasks for all phases of a new aircraft development program, including use case refinement, requirements development, clean-sheet design, software integration and validation, flight test planning, and analysis of flight data through prototype flight tests.
• Translate the physics of flight control avionics, aerodynamic characteristics, and mass properties of a conceptual aircraft into MATLAB scripts and Simulink models for real-time simulation and automatic code generation.
• Design discrete flight control laws, continually performing stability and flying qualities analyses.
• Independently verify and validate the embedded control law software on the simulated and actual hardware.
• Support development of analytic tools as needed for novel aircraft configurations.
• Participate in internal and customer-facing design reviews, test readiness reviews, flight briefings, and technical interchange meetings.
• Collaborate among peers, as part of a multi-disciplinary team (Systems, Software, Mechanical, and Electrical engineering), to solve unique and complex engineering challenges.

Qualifications

• Typically requires a bachelors degree, masters degree or PhD in engineering or a related technical discipline from an accredited institution and progressive engineering experience as follows; twelve or more years of experience with a bachelors degree, ten or more years of experience with a masters degree, or seven or more years with a PhD.
• May substitute equivalent engineering experience in lieu of education.
• Relevant background in the areas of low- and high-speed aerodynamics, control systems, and aircraft dynamics.
• Experience with MATLAB/Simulink modeling, simulation, and analysis of linear and nonlinear dynamic systems.
• Strong knowledge of classical and modern control theory, lower order modeling, and filtering techniques.
• Experience designing Simulink models for code generation and integration into an established C/C++ codebase.
• Ability to self-motivate and self-organize to achieve program established deadlines; proactively working independently and collaborating with other disciplines and seeking out help when appropriate.
• Strong communication, presentation, and interpersonal skills to effectively interface with other departments, customers, and/or government representatives.
• Ability to obtain and maintain a DoD Secret security clearance is required.

Desired Skills / Qualifications

• Familiarity with Stateflow, Python, and/or C/C++.
• Exposure to adjacent technical areas, including Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD), aerodynamics and performance, mass property analysis, servo-mechanical modeling, and/or aircraft structures.
• Active DoD Secret, or higher, security clearance.