Principal OR Sr. Principal Guidance Navigation Controls Engineer
Quick Summary
Support research and development of flight control algorithms for manned and unmanned air vehicles. Design, develop, implement, verify, and test algorithms, software,
Northrop Grumman Aeronautics Systems has an opening for a Principal or Senior Principal Guidance Navigation Controls Engineer to join our team in our South Bay Vehicle Engineering organization. This position can be filled at El Segundo, CA or Rancho Bernardo, CA.
The selected candidate should thrive in a fast-paced work environment with high expectations and collaborative/team settings across all levels. This is a dynamic organization involved in deploying forward-leaning avionics, guidance, navigation, and control systems for developmental concepts for air vehicles, weapons, and many more platforms.
Responsibilities
~1 min read- →Support research and development of flight control algorithms for manned and unmanned air vehicles.
- →Design, develop, implement, verify, and test algorithms, software, and simulation tools to perform guidance, navigation and control (GNC) of autonomous unmanned aircraft.
- →Develop control laws to meet air vehicle performance, flying qualities, and stability margin requirements, both on ground and in flight.
- →Design outer and inner loop control laws, and associated logic and autonomy functions.
- →Develop air vehicle system linear and non-linear dynamic simulation models and integrate models into software and hardware-in-the-loop simulation environments.
- →Perform performance and flying qualities analysis.
- →Support non-linear simulation and hardware-in-the-loop lab testing.
- →Support flight test activities and analyze air vehicle flight test data.
- →Develop analysis to support design reviews at different stages in a development program, such as PDR, CDR, etc.
This position can be filled at either the Principal GNC Engineer level or the Senior Principal GNC Engineer level, depending upon the qualifications below.
Requirements
~3 min read- Bachelor's degree in a related Science, Technology, Engineering or Mathematics (STEM) discipline with 5 years of relevant, professional engineering experience; OR Master’s degree in a related STEM discipline with 3 years of relevant, professional engineering experience; OR a PhD in a related STEM discipline with 1 year of relevant, professional engineering experience.
- Experience with fixed-wing aircraft flight dynamics.
- Experience using linear control principles and tools to design feedback control systems.
- Experience analyzing non-linear simulations of aircraft closed-loop dynamics.
- Working knowledge of autopilot functions and outer/inner loop control law performance requirements.
- Experience using MATLAB to create, process, analyze, and visually represent data.
- Experience using Simulink to model dynamic systems.
- Working knowledge of logic, modes, and states for autonomous aircraft.
- Ability and willingness to travel up to 20% of the time.
- Ability to obtain a US Government Secret security clearance or higher and Special Program Access (SAP).
- Bachelor's degree in a related Science, Technology, Engineering or Mathematics (STEM) discipline with 8 years of relevant, professional engineering experience; OR Master’s degree in a related STEM discipline with 6 years of relevant, professional engineering experience; OR a PhD in a related STEM discipline with 4 years of relevant, professional engineering experience.
- Experience with fixed-wing aircraft flight dynamics.
- Experience using linear control principles and tools to design feedback control systems.
- Experience analyzing non-linear simulations of aircraft closed-loop dynamics.
- Working knowledge of autopilot functions and outer/inner loop control law performance requirements.
- Experience using MATLAB to create, process, analyze, and visually represent data.
- Experience using Simulink to model dynamic systems.
- Working knowledge of logic, modes, and states for autonomous aircraft.
- Ability and willingness to travel up to 20% of the time.
- Ability to obtain a US Government Secret security clearance or higher and Special Program Access (SAP).
- A current, active in-scope US Government Secret security clearance or higher, with the ability to obtain Special Program Access (SAP).
- Experience designing control laws for fixed wing aircraft and performing handling qualities analysis
- Working knowledge of MIL-STD-1797 flying qualities requirements
- Experience with autonomy algorithms (Autonomous Taxi/ Take Off and Landing, etc.) for driving control laws.
- Familiarity with Simulink Stateflow Modeling and autocoding Simulink models
- Experience with C/C++, Python, and Lua script programming
Location & Eligibility
Listing Details
- First seen
- October 8, 2026
- Last seen
- October 8, 2026
Posting Health
- Days active
- 0
- Repost count
- 0
- Trust Level
- 49%
- Scored at
- October 8, 2026
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