Navigation Lead Engineer for Human Landing Systems (ES4)

About the role

The Sr Aerospace Navigation Lead Engineer at Amentum Space Exploration Division (ASED) is responsible for leading the navigation team in assessing and communicating risk to the HLS Chief Engineer and HLS commercial partners. This role involves deep space navigation, orbit determination, on-board navigation sensor modeling, and Kalman filtering techniques.

Responsibilities

• Lead the insight/oversight effort of the HLS GNC group (across NASA centers) with regards to all aspects of the navigation system
• Leading efforts for the Modeling and simulation of landing performance analysis of HLS trajectories
• Leading efforts for the integration of all relevant models into the simulation, including on-orbit estate estimation using ground tracking (e.g. range and doppler form Deep Space Network stations), on-board state estimation fusing inertial measurements with terrain relative sensing such as optical, radar, lidar measurements
• Stewards trade studies to assess navigation performance under dispersed model parameters to assess uncertainty of unknown model parameters, and evaluates navigation margins
• Affirms navigation margins and assesses HLS commercial partner test data and partner sensors and models
• Develops in-house models and/or integrates sensor models from HLS commercial providers into 6-DOF simulations such as the GeneraLized Aerospace Simulation in Simulink (GLASS) tool
• Executes/modify existing software/scripts in Python, Matlab, Fortran, C++
• Communicates navigation margin findings to HLS Chief Engineer and HLS commercial partners
• Maintains and strengthens NASA HLS cross-center navigation team
• Develops and coordinates with the GNC discipline strategic planning for growing navigation expertise at MSFC
• Provide demonstrated (minimum of 10 years) expertise to support the Human Landing Systems (HLS) program navigation team at the level of a Subject Matter Expert, as part of the Guidance Navigation and Control (GNC) discipline

Requirements

• A degree in Aerospace Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Physics or related field from an ABET accredited institution is required.
• Typical experience requirements are: Ph.D., with minimum of 4 years of experience, MS with at least 8 years of experience, or BS with at least 10-15 years of experience.
• Significant navigation experience
• Technical leadership experience
• Deep space navigation including ground tracking orbit determination or similar experience
• Onboard strap on navigation, including IMU, Radar/Lidar, sensor fusion, and Kalman filtering or similar experience

Qualifications

• Demonstrated expertise to support the Human Landing Systems (HLS) program navigation team at the level of a Subject Matter Expert, as part of the Guidance Navigation and Control (GNC) discipline
• Orbit Determination and Deep Space Navigation (Free Flyer, ODTK, MONTE, GMAT, Linear Covariance)
• Radar, LIDAR experience
• IMU, accelerometer, rate gyro modeling, GPS
• Terrain Relative Navigation
• Kalman Filtering and sensor fusion
• Python, Fortran, C++ , Matlab & Simulink programming experience
• Support the design, integration, and analysis of GN&C products
• Configure, conduct, and analyze 6-DOF Monte Carlo simulations
• Familiarity with Linux, Bash, and the use of computational clusters/servers
• Proof of U.S. Citizenship is required

Skills

• Orbit Determination and Deep Space Navigation (Free Flyer, ODTK, MONTE, GMAT, Linear Covariance)
• Radar, LIDAR experience
• IMU, accelerometer, rate gyro modeling, GPS
• Terrain Relative Navigation
• Kalman Filtering and sensor fusion
• Python, Fortran, C++ , Matlab & Simulink programming experience

Benefits

• Health, dental, and vision insurance
• Paid time off and holidays
• Retirement benefits (including 401(k) matching)
• Education reimbursement
• Parental leave
• Employee stock purchase plan
• Tax-saving options
• Disability and life insurance
• Pet insurance

Pay

ES4

Schedule

Normal workday 7:30-4:30, Monday thru Friday. Minimal overtime may be required (10%) to meet schedule milestones and to support technical demands of the job.

Original Posting

06/29/2026 - 07/31/2026