Path Planning & Sequencing Software Lead - Lunar Terrain Vehicle

(NASA LTVS Award Contingent)

Houston, Texas OR Glen Burnie MD

About Intuitive Machines:

Intuitive Machines is an innovative and cutting-edge space company making cislunar space accessible to both public and private customers. Our mission is to further science and exploration, communications, and economic progress from the Earth to the Moon and beyond. With the first commercial lunar landing in history, multiple NASA lunar missions in development, and additional private missions on our manifest, we pride ourselves in supporting our customers and the nation in paving the way to return humans to the surface of the Moon. Our world-class team includes experts in all aspects of spacecraft subsystems design, development, and test, on-orbit operations, and safety.

*Employment in this role is contingent upon NASA selecting Intuitive Machines as the winner of the LTVS program, scheduled for announcement later in 2025. 

About The Role: (This role is posted at multiple levels, from entry to technical lead, with multiple openings)

Lead a small team in the development and certification of the LTV onboard path planning and sequencing software, responsible for assessing safe driving paths to reach waypoints and executing complex self-driving sequences.

Responsibilities

• Proactively identify and document requirements for the vehicle path planning and sequencing software
• Architect and decompose the software solution for path planning and sequencing
• Coordinate the testing and certification of the system
• Comfortable developing software in a high-reliability environment, compliant to NASA standards NPR 7150.2D and NASA-STD-8739.8B and NASA CBCS requirements (e.g. SSP 50038)
• Represent path planning and sequencing software at NASA safety panels
• Supervise several internal employees and contractors

Qualifications 

• Experience in path planning algorithms, state machine design, and dynamic vehicle stability analysis
• Path planning algorithms: Hybrid A*, D*, and modern approaches
• State Machine Design: Coordinating vehicle movement sequences and command authority
• Dynamic Vehicle Stability Analysis: Verifying the output of static path planning algorithms and identifying safe speeds of travel to maintain stable vehicle control
• Failure Detection, Isolation, and Response (FDIR) logic for all-of-the-above
• Experience in verification by simulation for complex self-driving systems
• Development and maintenance of high-quality design and testing documentation
• Demonstrated relevant project experience (planetary rovers, autonomous vehicles, robotics, etc.)

Language/Tool Experience 

• C or C ++ (required)
• Python or other modeling/analysis languages (nice-to-have)
• Familiar with FPGA, GPU, and NPU hardware acceleration techniques for algorithms and able to coordinate with hardware acceleration engineers to implement and validate algorithms
• Git, Jira, Jama

EEOC

Intuitive Machines is an Equal Opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, race, color, religion, national origin, disability, protected veteran status, age, or any other characteristic protected by law.