Guidance, Navigation, and Control; GN&C) Engineer – Journeyman

Guidance, Navigation, and Control (GN&C) Engineer – Journeyman

We are looking for a Guidance, Navigation, and Control (GN&C) Engineer to join our team supporting advanced spaceflight programs at NASA Kennedy Space Center. The GN&C Engineer supports the development, analysis, verification, and integration of guidance, navigation, and control systems for spacecraft and other flight systems. This role provides technical support across GN&C, mission design, trajectory analysis, and navigation, allowing the engineer to contribute across multiple areas based on program needs.

This position will be filled at the Journeyman level, depending on qualifications, with salary commensurate with experience.

Key Responsibilities

• Support GN&C, mission design, trajectory analysis, and navigation activities as needed to address program priorities and fill engineering gaps.
• Review GN&C architectures, requirements, designs, integration approaches, test plans, and test data to evaluate technical adequacy, identify risks, and develop recommendations.
• Develop and execute trajectory, attitude, and 6-DOF spacecraft simulations and perform analysis supporting GN&C performance and mission objectives.
• Support mission design and trajectory analysis, including trajectory development, maneuver planning, orbit and attitude analysis, and rendezvous, proximity operations, and docking (RPOD).
• Analyze spacecraft navigation architectures and sensor suites, including sensor performance, accuracy, availability, observability, and suitability for GPS-denied and deep-space missions.
• Support navigation analysis involving state estimation, sensor fusion, and interactions between navigation sensors, flight software, guidance algorithms, and vehicle dynamics.
• Develop, review, and assess GN&C requirements, verification approaches, and verification evidence in support of system verification and validation.
• Support development, integration, verification, testing, and operation of spacecraft GN&C systems and associated sensors.
• Evaluate GN&C analyses, simulations, technical documentation, and test results to identify technical risks, uncertainties, and potential deficiencies, and support anomaly investigations and corrective actions.
• Evaluate technical tradeoffs involving performance, risk, schedule, cost, and implementation complexity and communicate recommendations to engineering and program leadership.
• Analyze GN&C interfaces with avionics, flight software, propulsion, mission design, structures, and other spacecraft systems.
• Participate in technical reviews, testing, and engineering exchanges and communicate technical findings and recommendations to technical and programmatic stakeholders.

Required Qualifications

• B.S. degree in Engineering or related discipline and 5+ years of related experience, or M.S. degree in Engineering or related discipline and 3+ years of related experience.
• Demonstrated experience in one or more areas of spacecraft GN&C, mission design and trajectory analysis, navigation, or related flight dynamics, with the ability and interest to contribute across adjacent technical areas.
• Experience developing or analyzing GN&C algorithms and spacecraft simulations, including 6-DOF modeling.
• Experience with engineering analysis and simulation tools such as MATLAB, Python, C++, or equivalent.
• Experience developing or evaluating spacecraft requirements, verification approaches, and success criteria.
• Experience with spacecraft GN&C systems, navigation sensors, integration, verification, testing, or operations.
• Must be a U.S. Citizen and successfully complete a U.S. Government background investigation.
• Strong communication, organization, and teamwork skills, with the ability to coordinate across multiple technical disciplines.

Preferred Qualifications

• M.S. degree in a related discipline.
• Experience with deep-space missions or GPS-denied navigation.
• Experience with spacecraft navigation sensors, state estimation, sensor fusion, or autonomous navigation.
• Experience with mission design, trajectory development, rendezvous/proximity operations, or maneuver analysis.
• Experience with spacecraft flexible-body dynamics, propellant slosh, or other spacecraft dynamics effects in low-gravity environments.
• Strong proficiency in C++ and experience developing or using mission-specific GN&C simulation or analysis software.
• Experience with trajectory and mission-analysis tools.
• Experience working with commercial spaceflight or launch service providers.
• Experience with deep-space or other safety-critical spaceflight systems.