Senior GNC Engineer - Flight Controls & Autonomy

Hermeus is a venture-backed defense aviation company reclaiming the lost art of rapid iterative prototyping to build the fastest aircraft in the world today. By prioritizing relentless hardware iteration, we deliver high-speed systems at the pace of the modern battlefield. We work with the Department of War to provide the high-speed capabilities our nation and its allies need to maintain a durable, asymmetric advantage.

As a Senior GNC Engineer at Hermeus, you will help develop and deploy the flight control, navigation, and autonomy systems that enable our aircraft to fly safely and perform reliably in demanding real-world environments. This role will focus heavily on flight controls development, controls modeling, state estimation, and autonomy for advanced aircraft applications, including autonomous takeoff and landing. 

You will work across simulation, software, hardware, and flight test to build and validate advanced control and estimation capabilities for high-speed aircraft. This role is ideal for an engineer who enjoys solving hard dynamic systems problems, moving quickly from analysis to implementation, and working closely with cross-functional teams to take algorithms from concept through validation and flight. 

Develop and improve flight control, guidance, and navigation algorithms for high-speed aircraft  

Design and implement control laws, estimation logic, and sensor fusion strategies for autonomous and piloted flight applications, with an emphasis on autonomous takeoff and landing  

Develop and analyze linear control models and dynamic system representations to support controller design, stability analysis, and performance assessment  

Build and refine high-fidelity models of vehicle dynamics, sensors, actuators, and control system behavior using MATLAB, Simulink, and related simulation tools  

Conduct 6-DOF simulation, Monte Carlo analysis, regression testing, and performance studies to validate system robustness across nominal and off-nominal conditions  

Support software and system integration across flight controls, navigation, avionics, and other vehicle subsystems  

Execute and analyze software-in-the-loop, hardware-in-the-loop, and system integration testing campaigns  

Support flight test planning, real-time test execution, and post-flight data analysis to validate and improve control and estimation performance  

Collaborate closely with avionics, software, test, and vehicle engineering teams to define requirements, interfaces, and system architecture  

Drive technical trade studies for sensors, estimators, control logic, and autonomy-related subsystems  

Contribute to verification strategies, test coverage definition, and system-level performance validation  

Document technical work clearly through reports, test reviews, and design presentations  

Bachelor’s degree in aerospace engineering, mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, physics, or a related technical field  

5+ years of professional experience in GNC, flight controls, autonomy, estimation, robotics, or closely related aerospace systems  

Strong fundamentals in dynamics, linear controls, stability analysis, and modeling and simulation  

Experience developing or integrating flight-critical algorithms for aircraft, spacecraft, missiles, UAVs, or other autonomous systems  

Proficiency in MATLAB, Simulink, Python, C++, or similar technical computing and software development tools  

Experience with flight controls development for autonomous aircraft or other high-performance aerospace systems  

Experience with autonomous takeoff and landing system development, testing, or validation  

Experience with GNSS, INS/IMU, air data systems, and other aircraft navigation sensors  

Practical experience with Kalman filtering techniques, including EKF, UKF, or related estimation methods  

Experience with 6-DOF simulation, control law development, and flight dynamics modeling  

Experience with software-in-the-loop, hardware-in-the-loop, Monte Carlo testing, and regression-based validation  

Experience supporting flight test, post-flight analysis, and control system tuning  

Ability to solve complex technical problems with a high degree of ownership in a fast-paced development environment  

Strong written and verbal communication skills  

Passion for building advanced aircraft and enabling a faster pace of flight development