GNC Engineer

About the Role

True Anomaly delivers decisive capabilities for space superiority. We build autonomous spacecraft, advanced payloads, mission software, and space-based interceptors — enabling the U.S. and its Allies to secure the space environment and counter threats from the ultimate high ground.

Our values:

• Be the offset. We create asymmetric advantages with creativity and ingenuity.
• What would it take? We challenge assumptions to deliver ambitious results.
• It’s the people. Our team is our competitive advantage and we are better together.

Responsibilities

• Own all aspects of Guidance, Navigation, and Control (GNC) system development for missile systems, including architecture definition, algorithm design, verification, hardware integration, flight test support, and operational deployment.
• Design, test, and validate GNC flight software and embedded algorithms for missiles operating across multiple flight regimes and environmental conditions.
• Develop and maintain navigation and state estimation algorithms, including sensor fusion frameworks (e.g., EKF, UKF, particle filters) integrating IMU, GPS/INS, seeker data, and other sensor modalities to provide high-rate, high-accuracy state estimates throughout the engagement timeline.
• Develop guidance laws (proportional navigation, augmented PN, optimal guidance) and autopilot designs; implement them in flight software; verify performance and robustness through high-fidelity 6-DOF simulation, Monte Carlo analysis, hardware-in-the-loop testing, and flight test correlation.
• Design, implement, and maintain high-fidelity simulation environments capturing aerodynamics, propulsion, atmospheric effects, target dynamics, sensor models, and actuator dynamics for SIL, HIL, and mission analysis across the full flight envelope.
• Utilize frequency-domain and time-domain control analysis techniques to ensure stability margins.
• Develop terminal guidance algorithms for intercept of maneuvering targets, including target tracking, aimpoint selection, miss distance prediction, time-to-go estimation, and endgame steering logic.

Requirements

• Bachelor's degree in aerospace engineering, mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, physics, or related field.
• 5+ years of relevant GNC engineering experience in the aerospace and defense industry, preferably with tactical missile systems, interceptors, or guided munitions.
• Coursework or project experience in flight dynamics, aerodynamics, control systems, and state estimation.
• Strong understanding of physics, rigid body dynamics, intercept geometry, proportional navigation, and real-time software development principles.
• Experience with C++ and/or Python for algorithm development, numerical methods, real-time control, or simulation.
• Familiarity with missile GNC concepts including guidance laws, autopilot design, sensor fusion, inertial navigation, seeker operation, and aerodynamic/thrust vector control.
• Exposure to filtering and estimation methods (e.g., Kalman filters, complementary filters, INS/GPS integration) through internships, coursework, or projects.
• Ability to build, test, and debug flight software, real-time control systems, and simulation tools.
• Strong analytical skills with emphasis on dynamics, controls, and numerical methods; ability to work effectively in a fast-paced, multidisciplinary engineering environment.
• Demonstrated ability to take ownership of complex technical problems and drive solutions from concept through flight test.
• Ability to obtain and maintain TS/SCI US government security clearance.
• To conform to U.S. Government space technology export regulations, including the International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR) you must be a U.S. citizen, lawful permanent resident of the U.S., protected individual as defined by 8 U.S.C. 1324b(a)(3), or eligible to obtain the required authorizations from the U.S. Department of State.

Preferred Skills and Experience

• Master's degree or PhD in aerospace engineering, control systems, or equivalent discipline.
• Experience with terminal guidance algorithms, proportional navigation variants, optimal guidance theory, or modern guidance techniques.
• Experience developing autopilot designs for agile missiles including gain scheduling, adaptive control, or nonlinear control methods.
• Experience with INS/GPS integration, sensor calibration, alignment algorithms, and error budget analysis.
• Experience with aerodynamic modeling, CFD correlation to flight data, or aeroservoelastic analysis.
• Experience developing and executing hardware-in-the-loop test campaigns with flight representative GNC hardware.
• Flight test experience including test planning, instrumentation selection, telemetry analysis, and flight data reconstruction.
• Experience with intercept kinematics, target tracking, miss distance analysis, and covariance propagation.
• Experience performing line-of-sight stability analysis including jitter, noise rejection, and seeker tracking performance.
• Hands-on experience with GNC hardware integration, sensor characterization, and actuator calibration.
• Familiarity with missile-specific tools and standards (e.g., MISSILE DATCOM, MIL-STD-1553, MIL-STD-1760).
• Active TS/SCI clearance with Polygraph.

Pay

Base Salary: $115,000 - $290,000

Benefits

• Equity
• Health, Dental, Vision
• HRA/HSA options
• PTO and paid holidays
• 401K
• Parental Leave

Schedule

This is an onsite position. Successful candidates will be located near Denver, CO or Long Beach, CA.