Flight Controls Engineer

Job Title:

Controls Engineer – UAV Flight Dynamics and GNCJob Description

This role focuses on understanding, analyzing, and improving the flight behavior of unmanned aircraft by working at the intersection of flight dynamics, guidance, navigation and control (GNC), software, and avionics. You will analyze real flight data, correlate it with models, and drive concrete changes to control and navigation systems that are validated through flight testing. The position offers the opportunity to contribute to pioneering work in unmanned helicopters, with strong potential for extension and conversion to a full-time role.

• Analyze real flight data and compare it to flight models to understand and explain why the aircraft behaved the way it did, whether performance was as expected or not.
• Identify whether observed flight behavior issues are related to modeling, tuning, or system-level problems and propose clear, data-driven solutions.
• Tune and evaluate flight control and navigation behavior to improve stability, responsiveness, and mission performance.
• Work across flight dynamics, GNC, software, and avionics disciplines, collaborating closely with each team without owning all domains outright.
• Help the broader team make informed and safe decisions about aircraft behavior, performance, and flight envelope expansion.
• Document findings, analyses, and conclusions clearly so other engineers can rely on and reuse this work in the future.
• Analyze and model UAV flight mechanics, including aerodynamic forces, stability, and control response, to support accurate performance predictions.
• Evaluate and refine flight performance metrics such as endurance, climb rate, turn capability, and control authority to meet mission-level objectives.
• Correlate flight test data with aerodynamic and performance models to validate system behavior and identify discrepancies or modeling gaps.
• Support flight envelope expansion activities, ensuring the aircraft operates safely within aerodynamic and structural limits.
• Contribute to defining and verifying performance requirements and mission-level objectives for UAV platforms.
• Support flight testing as required, including pre-test preparation, real-time data interpretation, and post-flight analysis.
• Review, document, and tune existing control and navigation algorithms for attitude, position, and mission control.
• Analyze control law performance under various flight conditions and refine parameters for improved stability, robustness, and response.
• Investigate and explain observed flight behaviors using theoretical analysis and numerical simulations.
• Support estimation and sensor fusion performance assessment, including IMU, GPS, air data, magnetometer, and other onboard sensors.
• Collaborate with software and flight test teams to ensure accurate implementation and thorough documentation of GNC logic.
• Develop and maintain a comprehensive understanding of the autopilot and flight control software architecture, including embedded systems, control laws, and aircraft-level integration.
• Interpret and document algorithmic flow and software–hardware interactions to support troubleshooting and future enhancements.
• Collaborate with embedded engineers to ensure correct integration and calibration of control laws within the flight control software.
• Occasionally implement or prototype algorithm modifications and diagnostic tools using C, C++, Python, or MATLAB/Simulink.
• Interpret electrical wiring diagrams and avionics schematics to understand system interfaces, dependencies, and potential failure modes.
• Support system integration and troubleshooting activities related to sensors, flight computers, actuators, and other avionics components.
• Participate in hardware-in-the-loop (HIL),…