GNC Engineer II (Accurate Landing)

Location: Playa Vista, California, United States

Department: Accurate Landing

Who We Are: 

Eras of humanity can often be defined by a dominant transportation mode - horse-drawn chariots, ocean-going boats, or aircraft. These were spurred by a small group of people rigorously focused on building technology to achieve faster access to more of the world.  We seek to usher in a new era of humanity defined by universal access to the whole globe free of borders and the presence of a routine way from space to Earth. To do this, we are building highly maneuverable re-entry vehicles that can loiter in orbit before precision landing back on Earth. 

What You’ll Do: 

As a GNC Engineer at Inversion, you will have an instrumental impact on the functionality and performance of our next-generation reentry vehicles. You will own a substantial aspect of the Guidance, Navigation, and Control that will enable the accurate and precise landing of our Arc spacecraft. Aspects of this work include developing novel algorithms for the final landing stages of flight, building the modeling and simulation needed to quickly iterate on those algorithms, and rapidly flight testing them to achieve the required performance. This is a unique opportunity to work on the early stages of a novel reentry vehicle, including defining vehicle architecture and creatively solving new design challenges. Your impact will be on all aspects of the Guidance, Navigation, and Control that powers the world’s first reentry vehicle designed for turning space into a transportation layer for Earth. You will be a key member of the Accurate Landing team, reporting directly to the Director of Engineering, Accurate Landing. 

Required Qualifications: 

• Bachelor’s degree in Aerospace Engineering, a related field, or equivalent experience. 

• Typically 2+ years of applicable experience developing and testing GNC algorithms and systems. 

• Strong fundamental understanding of estimation algorithms including Kalman filtering, sensor fusion, and state estimation. 

• Solid grasp of classical mechanics, dynamics, and rigid body motion. 

• Proficiency in programming languages such as MATLAB, Python, or C++ for simulation and analysis. 

• Demonstrated excellent verbal and written communication skills. 

• Capable of working in a dynamic, fast-paced startup environment. 

• This position is on-site at Inversion HQ in Playa Vista, CA. 

Desired Qualifications: 

• Master’s degree in Aerospace Engineering, a related field, or equivalent experience. 

• Experience with system identification and parameter estimation for complex dynamical systems. 

• Experience building code deployed to real hardware in a compute-restricted environment. 

• Practical experience developing GNC for airborne vehicles. 

• Hardware in the Loop (HITL) test experience. 

Our office headquarters is located in Playa Vista, CA. This position requires in office presence. 

_{The California annual base salary for this role is currently $101,000-160,000.} Pay Grades are determined by role, level, location, and alignment with market data.  Individual pay will be determined on a case-by-case basis and may vary based on the following considerations: interviews and an assessment of several factors that are unique to each candidate, job-related skills, relevant education and experience, certifications, abilities of the candidate and internal equity.