Xona Space Systems
Sr. GNC Orbit Controls Engineer
Burlingame, California · Senior
No sponsorshipDetected 85 days ago
C++MATLABAlgorithmsLinuxCybersecurityEmbedded SystemsAerospace EngineeringControlsSimulink
About the role
- Xona is the navigational intelligence company bringing real-time, centimeter-level certainty to any device, anywhere on Earth.
- For Canada Roles: Successful candidates must obtain and hold a security clearance at the reliability status level, and pass security assessment for the Canadian Controlled Goods Program (CGP) and ITAR.
- We celebrate diversity and are committed to creating an inclusive environment for all employees.
Responsibilities
- Develop open-loop and closed-loop controllers for RAAN and LTAN control, altitude management, station-keeping, and end-of-life disposal
- Implement and maintain onboard orbit propagators, select and validate integrators, and ensure numerical consistency with ground truth
- Build and validate orbit determination pipelines using EKF or UKF with GNSS, and manage navigation readiness and covariance gating for maneuvers
- Design burns and long-arc trajectories, and optimize delta V and timelines under comm visibility, power and thermal, and operations constraints
- Maintain numerically consistent MATLAB and C++ simulators, create Monte Carlo campaigns, run SIL and HIL tests, and perform post-maneuver reconstruction
- GNC Orbit Controls Engineer to design and implement the algorithms and onboard software that handle orbit determination, guidance, maneuver execution, and post-maneuver analysis to deliver safe, efficient, and highly automated station-keeping and disposal.
- We're building the software that keeps our spacecraft exactly where they need to be.
Requirements
- You are strong in orbital mechanics and simulation and have implemented onboard propagators with perturbation models and integrators on flight targets
- You have built production guidance, control, or navigation software in C and C++, and use MATLAB and Simulink for analysis, modeling, and test-vector generation
- You have executed or supported real maneuvers and can reconcile plan versus truth with post-burn estimation
- You are comfortable at the ADCS and propulsion interface for burn pointing and momentum management
- Experience with orbit propagation algorithms
- Familiarity with CCSDS ephemeris and attitude formats
- For U.K. Roles: To comply with U.K. regulations, this role requires Baseline Personnel Security Standard (BPSS) checks, and successful candidates must be eligible to obtain UK Security Clearance (SC).
- Master's or Ph.D. in Aerospace Engineering, Control Systems, Applied Physics, or a related field
- Hands-on electric propulsion experience including thrust modeling and calibration, long-burn guidance, duty-cycle planning, and thermal constraints
- Trajectory design and optimization expertise
- Emphasis on code quality and reliability with unit and integration testing, SIL and HIL, and experience on embedded RTOS or embedded Linux targets
Company info
- We're looking for a Sr.
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This listing is sourced directly from Xona Space Systems's careers page and normalized into a canonical job model.