Sentinel - Hypersonic Testbed GN&C Engineer

About the role

This opening is in Huntsville, AL or Roy, UT and will support the Sentinel Program. Northrop Grumman supports the Air Force’s sustainment, development, production and deployment of hardware and system modifications for Intercontinental Ballistic Missile (ICBM) Ground and Airborne Launch Control Systems, Launch Facilities, and associated infrastructure.

Responsibilities

• Serve on one or more Advanced Programs (SDS Futures' Group) initiatives in the hypersonic arena.
• Support the technical development of the Hypersonic Testbed vehicles' autopilot for precision at high Mach in Exoatmospheric and Endoatmospheric flight.
• Support covariance analysis and circular error probable accuracy assessment.
• Participate in engineering review boards, technical interchange meetings and critical milestone reviews.
• Determine and report incremental performance improvements.
• Respond to analysis package requests.
• Perform trajectory assessment and flight analyses.
• Collaborate with a team of GN&C engineers in an Agile environment to meet critical milestones.
• Develop and analyze GNC algorithms (Guidance, Navigation, Autopilot).
• Develop, verify, and validate complex 6 degrees of freedom vehicle models.
• Model missile components such as inertial measurement units (IMU), electronic control actuators, and thrust vector control (TVC) systems.
• Use C++ and MATLAB and Object-Oriented design.
• Conduct multidisciplinary research and collaborate with equipment designers and/or hardware engineers in the planning, design, development stages utilizing (M&S) tools systems for safety and mission critical analysis.
• Work with the GN&C Flight Software Team to automatically generate code from high-level specifications or models, ensuring consistency and reducing manual errors.

Requirements

• Principal GN&C Engineer: Bachelor's degree in STEM and 5 years of experience, 3 years of experience with master’s degree, 0 years of experience with PhD.
• Sr. Principal GN&C Engineer: Bachelor's degree in STEM and 8 years of experience, 6 years of experience with master’s degree, 4 years of experience with PhD.

Qualifications

• Must have an active U.S. Government DoD Secret security clearance at time of application, current and within scope, with an investigation date within the last 6 years.
• Ability to obtain Special Access within a reasonable period as determined by the business needs of the company.
• Ability to obtain TOP SECRET clearance and Special Access within a reasonable period as determined by the business needs of the company.
• 2 years of experience with Agile Development with DoDAF standards and methods.
• 3 years of autopilot development and control theory specifically focused on tuning and implementing flight control algorithms.
• 4 years of demonstrated experience coding in a higher-level programming language (C, C++, MATLAB/Simulink, etc.).
• 4 years of demonstrated experience in guidance, navigation, or control algorithm development and/or analysis for launch vehicles, missiles, spacecraft, and/or aircraft.

Skills

• Strong grasp of both classical and modern control theory, including PID, gain scheduling, state-space control, optimal control, or robust control techniques.
• Experience designing, analyzing, and tuning autopilot algorithms for missile, hypersonic, or unmanned aircraft systems.
• Experience designing gain-scheduled or adaptive flight control systems across a wide flight envelope.
• Familiarity with nonlinear control techniques such as dynamic inversion, LQR/LQG, MPC, or adaptive control.
• Experience designing actuator dynamic models, including bandwidth, rate limiting, position limits, hysteresis, backlash, deadband, and saturation effects.
• Experience evaluating actuator performance across varying environmental and operational conditions.
• Knowledge of state estimation techniques, such as Kalman filtering or complementary filtering.
• Experience transitioning theoretical algorithms into flight-ready software using Software-in-the-Loop (SIL) and Hardware-in-the-Loop (HIL) applications.
• Experience with a software version control system, such as Git, Gitlab, and/or Bitbucket.
• Experience with the Atlassian tool set, Agile Development, Model Based Engineering, and Software Development best practices.
• Experience with certification, airworthiness, testing, or qualification of flight and safety critical systems.

Benefits

Northrop Grumman offers a comprehensive benefits package including:

• Medical, Dental & Vision coverage
• 401k
• Educational Assistance
• Life Insurance
• Employee Assistance Programs & Work/Life Solutions
• Paid Time Off
• Health & Wellness Resources
• Employee Discounts

Pay

The primary level salary range is $0.00 - $0.00 and the secondary level salary range is $0.00 - $0.00.

Schedule

The standard work schedule for this position is 9/80. The 9/80 schedule allows employees who work a nine-hour day Monday through Thursday to take every other Friday off.