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 an Advanced Programs Flight Controls Engineer in San Diego (Poway, CA).

Responsibilities

• Perform GNC-related tasks for all phases of a new aircraft development program.
• Translate the physics of flight control avionics, aerodynamic characteristics, and mass properties into MATLAB scripts and Simulink models.
• Design discrete flight control laws and perform stability and flying qualities analyses.
• Verify and validate embedded control law software on simulated and actual hardware.
• Support development of analytic tools for novel aircraft configurations.
• Participate in design reviews, test readiness reviews, flight briefings, and technical interchange meetings.
• Collaborate with peers across systems, software, mechanical, and electrical engineering teams to solve unique challenges.

Qualifications

• Typically requires a bachelor's degree, master's degree, or PhD in engineering or a related technical field.
• Progressive engineering experience as follows: six or more years with a bachelor's degree, four or more years with a master's degree, or two or more years with a PhD.
• Equivalent engineering experience may substitute for education.
• Experience with low- and high-speed aerodynamics, control systems, and aircraft dynamics.
• Knowledge of MATLAB/Simulink modeling, simulation, and analysis of linear and nonlinear dynamic systems.
• Strong understanding of classical and modern control theory, lower order modeling, and filtering techniques.
• Ability to self-motivate, self-organize, and meet program deadlines.
• Effective communication, presentation, and interpersonal skills.
• Ability to obtain and maintain a DoD Secret security clearance is required.

Desired Skills / Qualifications

• Experience with flight control design and analysis for fixed and rotary wing aircraft or missile systems.
• Experience with Simulink models for code generation and integration into established C/C++ codebases.
• Familiarity with Stateflow, Python, and/or C/C++.
• Exposure to adjacent technical areas such as Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD), aerodynamics and performance, and aircraft structures.