Principal or Senior Principal Guidance Navigation Controls (GNC) Engineer

At Northrop Grumman, our employees have incredible opportunities to work on revolutionary systems that impact people's lives around the world today, and for generations to come. Our pioneering and inventive spirit has enabled us to be at the forefront of many technological advancements in our nation's history — from the first flight across the Atlantic Ocean, to stealth bombers, to landing on the moon. We look for people who have bold new ideas, courage, and a pioneering spirit to join forces to invent the future, and have fun along the way. Our culture thrives on intellectual curiosity, cognitive diversity, and bringing your whole self to work.

About the role

Northrop Grumman Aeronautics Systems has an opening for a Principal or Senior Principal Guidance Navigation Controls (GNC) Engineer to join our team of qualified individuals within our South Bay Vehicle Engineering organization. This position is located at El Segundo, CA. The selected candidate should thrive in a fast-paced work environment with high expectations and collaborative/team settings across all levels. This is a dynamic organization involved in deploying forward-leaning avionics, guidance, navigation, and control systems for developmental concepts for air vehicles, weapons, and many more platforms.

Relocation assistance may be available. Travel is required, approximately 25% of the time. A Secret clearance is required for this role.

Responsibilities

• Support research and development of flight control algorithms for manned and unmanned air vehicles.
• Design, develop, implement, verify, and test algorithms, software, and simulation tools to perform guidance, navigation, and control (GNC) of autonomous unmanned aircraft.
• Develop control laws to meet air vehicle performance, flying qualities, and stability margin requirements both on ground and in flight.
• Design outer and inner loop control laws and associated logic and autonomy functions.
• Develop air vehicle system linear and non-linear dynamic simulation models and integrate models into software and hardware-in-the-loop simulation environments.
• Perform performance and flying qualities analysis.
• Support non-linear simulation and hardware-in-the-loop lab testing.
• Support flight test activities and analyze air vehicle flight test data.
• Develop analysis to support design reviews at different stages in a development program, such as PDR, CDR, etc.

Requirements

This position may be filled at either the Principal GNC Engineer level or the Senior Principal GNC Engineer level, depending upon qualifications.

Basic Qualifications for Principal Guidance Navigation Controls Engineer

• Bachelor's degree in a related Science, Technology, Engineering, or Mathematics (STEM) discipline with 5 years of relevant experience; OR Master’s degree in a STEM discipline with 3 years of relevant experience; OR a PhD in a related STEM with 1 year of relevant experience.
• Experience with fixed-wing aircraft flight dynamics.
• Experience using linear control principles and tools to design feedback control systems.
• Experience analyzing non-linear simulations of aircraft closed-loop dynamics.
• Working knowledge of autopilot functions.
• Working knowledge of outer loop control law performance requirements.
• Experience using MATLAB to create, process, analyze, and visually represent data.
• Experience using Simulink to model dynamic systems.
• Familiarity with autocoding Simulink models.
• Working knowledge of logic, modes, and states for autonomous aircraft.
• Familiarity with C/C++ programming.
• Familiarity with Python programming.
• Must have the ability to obtain and maintain a US Government clearance and Special Access Program (SAP) within a reasonable amount of time as determined by business needs.

Basic Qualifications for Senior Principal Guidance Navigation Controls Engineer

• Bachelor's degree in a related Science, Technology, Engineering, or Mathematics (STEM) discipline with 9 years of relevant experience; OR Master’s degree in a STEM discipline with 7 years of relevant experience; OR a PhD in a related STEM with 4 years of relevant experience.
• Experience with fixed-wing aircraft flight dynamics.
• Experience using linear control principles and tools to design feedback control systems.
• Experience analyzing non-linear simulations of aircraft closed-loop dynamics.
• Working knowledge of autopilot functions.
• Working knowledge of outer loop control law performance requirements.
• Experience using MATLAB to create, process, analyze, and visually represent data.
• Experience using Simulink to model dynamic systems.
• Familiarity with autocoding Simulink models.
• Working knowledge of logic, modes, and states for autonomous aircraft.
• Familiarity with C/C++ programming.
• Familiarity with Python programming.
• Must have the ability to obtain and maintain a US Government clearance and Special Access Program (SAP) within a reasonable amount of time as determined by business needs.

Preferred Qualifications

• A current active in-scope US Government Secret security clearance or higher, with the ability to obtain Special Program Access (SAP).
• Experience designing control laws for fixed-wing aircraft and performing handling qualities analysis.
• Familiarity with Simulink Stateflow Modeling.
• Working knowledge of MIL-STD-1797 flying qualities requirements.
• Experience with autonomy algorithms (Autonomous Taxi/Take Off and Landing, etc.) for driving control laws.
• Experience with Lua Script programming.
• Working knowledge of SAE-94910 performance requirements.

Pay

• Principal GNC Engineer salary range: $114,000.00 - $171,000.00.
• Senior Principal GNC Engineer salary range: $142,200.00 - $213,400.00.

The above salary ranges represent general guidelines; Northrop Grumman considers a number of factors when determining base salary offers such as the scope and responsibilities of the position and the candidate's experience, education, skills, and current market conditions. Depending on the position, employees may be eligible for overtime, shift differential, and a discretionary bonus in addition to base pay. Annual bonuses are designed to reward individual contributions as well as allow employees to share in company results. Employees in Vice President or Director positions may be eligible for Long Term Incentives.

Benefits

• Health insurance coverage.
• Life and disability insurance.
• Savings plan.
• Company-paid holidays.
• Paid time off (PTO) for vacation and/or personal business.