GNC and Autonomy Engineer-Associate

Position: GNC and Autonomy Engineer-Associate Staff
The Tactical Autonomy Group develops and delivers AI-enabled autonomy and robotic systems where it counts - at the tactical edge. As an FFRDC, we combine academic depth in algorithms, controls, and machine learning, the execution speed of industry, and direct mission pull from operational end-users to solve problems others can’t. We don’t stop at papers: we design, build, integrate, field-test, and transition autonomy stacks - spanning perception, decision-making, learning, and control - into real operations across the DoD and Intelligence Community.

Position Description In this role you will contribute to navigation and estimation teams that are developing autonomous systems and payloads for sea, ground, and air domains. Many of the projects incorporate GPS-denied capabilities (e.g. magnetic, vision, radio frequency) for single and multi-agent concepts. Individual contributors leverage experience in state estimation, optimization, and object-oriented programming to contribute throughout the full Lifecyle of a project from concept definition to field testing.

In addition to direct project contributions, staff are encouraged to explore cutting-edge approaches and execute publishable research.

Given the wide range of work in our Group, we seek the following attributesMS in Aerospace Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Electrical/Computer Engineering, Robotics, Computer Science, or a related field; or a BS with 2+ years of relevant experience.

Strong technical foundation in guidance, navigation, estimation, or control, including experience with techniques such as optimal/robust control, trajectory optimization, Kalman or particle filtering, factor graphs, SLAM, or related methods.

Experience developing algorithms or software for robotic, autonomous, or other dynamic physical systems, with an interest in implementing and testing them on real hardware.

Strong C++ programming skills in a Linux environment and the ability to develop clean, maintainable, well-architected software.

Strong analytical, problem-solving, and communication skills, with the ability to work effectively on multidisciplinary teams.

Exceptional candidates may also have experience in one or more of the following

Resilient and GPS-denied navigation, including visual, inertial, magnetic, RF, terrain-relative, or multi-modal navigation.

Advanced guidance and control, including nonlinear, optimal, robust, adaptive, or model-predictive control; trajectory generation; and Background in aerodynamics to facilitate integrated vehicle/control-surface design.

Sensor fusion and perception, including computer vision, LiDAR, radar, or other sensing modalities used for navigation and autonomy.

Multi-agent systems, including cooperative localization, distributed estimation, guidance, coordination, or collaborative sensing.

AI/ML for GNC, including learned dynamics, perception-informed control, reinforcement learning, or hybrid learning/model-based approaches.

Robotics and software-development tools such as ROS/ROS 2, Python, simulation environments, hardware-in-the-loop testing, or real-time software/operating systems.

Hands-on experience integrating and field-testing GNC algorithms on air, ground, maritime, or other robotic platforms.

Recent Graduate Hiring Range: $116,400 - $140,000

Experienced Hiring Range: $116,400 - $`182,200

Disclaimer: MIT Lincoln Laboratory provides a typical hiring range as a good faith estimate of what we reasonably expect to offer for this position at the time of posting. The final salary offered to a selected candidate will depend on various factors, including—but not limited to—the scope and responsibilities of the role, the candidate’s experience, skills and education/training, internal equity considerations and…