Sr. GNC​/Flight Systems Engineer

WORK LOCATION:

Remote (East Coast Preferred)

FLSA STATUS:
Exempt

SALARY RANGE:
The anticipated salary range for this role is $152,000 to $230,000 annually. This range reflects a good faith estimate based on the targeted level for the role and typical compensation benchmarks across U.S. locations. Actual compensation may vary depending on the selected candidate's qualifications, experience, geographical location, and internal alignment.

The Senior Staff GNC/Flight Systems Engineer is a senior technical leader responsible for shaping the long-term direction, architecture, and performance of guidance, navigation, and control systems across the company’s UAS product lines. This role serves as a cross-program authority-defining standards, reviewing critical designs, anticipating system risks, and advancing the state of the art for flight-control capabilities. Engineers at this level operate with broad organizational influence.

They mentor senior engineers, guide architectural decisions, solve the most complex and high-impact flight behaviors, and drive innovation in modeling, simulation, autonomy, and advanced control algorithms. The Senior Staff Engineer ensures that all aircraft maintain consistent, safe, and reliable flight behavior while pushing performance boundaries for next-generation UAS platforms.

• Serve as a technical authority for GNC and flight-control architectures across all programs and aircraft families.
• Define long-term GNC technical roadmap, shaping system architecture, algorithmic strategy, and modeling frameworks.
• Lead resolution of the most challenging, high-risk flight issues spanning dynamics, sensors, avionics, and embedded systems.
• Drive cross-program alignment for modeling, controller design, estimator frameworks, and software integration approaches.
• Oversee development of advanced control techniques (adaptive control, MPC, robust/nonlinear control, or hybrid autonomy systems).
• Lead system-level reviews, architecture boards, and technical gate reviews for major engineering decisions.
• Mentor senior and staff-level engineers, developing organizational capability in GNC, autonomy, and simulation.
• Support advanced flight-test initiatives, including new airframe bring-up, expanded envelopes, and experimental modes.
• Define benchmarking approaches, performance metrics, and data-driven evaluation methods for GNC algorithms.
• Participate in strategic planning with engineering leadership, influencing resourcing, tooling investments, and technology priorities.
• Represent GNC technical direction to executive leadership, customers, and external stakeholders.

• Bachelor's degree in Aerospace Engineering, Robotics, Mechanical Engineering, Electrical Engineering, or related discipline.
• Master's degree required;
  Ph.D. preferred for advanced research roles.
• 10-15+ years of experience in flight controls, GNC, or autonomous-systems engineering.
• Demonstrated leadership of system-level GNC architecture across multiple aircraft or programs.
• Experience guiding senior engineers and owning technical direction across product lines.
• Deep experience with complex, cross-discipline flight-behavior troubleshooting.
• Expert-level control-system design: classical, modern, nonlinear, and robust approaches.
• Deep experience with sensor-fusion frameworks, advanced estimation theory, and fault-tolerant navigation.
• High proficiency with high-fidelity modeling, simulation, aerodynamics integration, and multi-body dynamics.
• Strong fluency in MATLAB/Simulink, C/C++, Python, and embedded systems integration.
• Ability to assess and guide architecture across avionics, sensors, propulsion, and mechanical interfaces.
• Ability to define and enforce technical standards across programs.
• Exce…