GNC Engineer, ADCS (Starshield)

Starshield leverages SpaceX’s Starlink technology and launch capability to support national security efforts. While Starlink is designed for consumer and commercial use, Starshield is designed for government use, with an initial focus on earth observation, communications, and hosted payloads.

As an engineer on this team, you will bring a passion and expertise in areas like spacecraft attitude dynamics and control, orbit and attitude navigation filtering, orbital mechanics, spacecraft systems design, and software development to support the Starshield Attitude Determination and Control System (ADCS) GNC team.

There are several sub-teams within Starshield GNC with different focus areas. The ADCS team focuses on vehicle GNC software and hardware design, analysis, testing, and on-orbit operations, with the ultimate goal of ensuring that all Starshield vehicles reliably and intelligently balance payload pointing needs, sensor availability, momentum management, thermal constraints, and power generation demand across the entire mission timeline. On any satellite, the ADCS is an extremely central and crucial subsystem that is key to mission success. In this role, you will be working on a high-impact team whose success is paramount to the long-term flourishing and continuous improvement of the entire Starshield program. Come help us write the software that flies Starshield satellites and enables mission success! 

• →Design and implementation of satellite GNC software that can facilitate all mission concepts of operations across all phases of flight, including off-nominal/contingency scenarios
• →Design of concepts of operations (CONOPs) that intelligently balance thermal constraints, power budgets, momentum management, satellite-to-ground and satellite-to-satellite contact, and payload-pointing needs
• →Design, development, and flight software implementation of onboard GNC algorithms to achieve a high level of vehicle autonomy and fault tolerance while providing adequate navigation and control performance
• →Update and maintain GNC software configurations for a variety of minor satellite design revisions and mission sets
• →High fidelity time domain 6DOF modeling and simulation of satellite dynamics, sensors, actuators, algorithms, and all of their interactions
• →Monte Carlo simulation analysis to validate safe and reliable flight and quantify navigation and control performance 
• →Heavy involvement in integrated hardware-in-the-loop (HITL) testing efforts, including but not limited to test case design, data review automation, and modeling fidelity improvements
• →Navigation filtering and control systems design and optimization 
• →Spacecraft design activities related to ADCS sensor and actuator hardware sizing and layout 
• →Develop, validate, and improve upon complex sensor, actuator, and dynamics models for use in 6DOF simulation analysis
• →Maintain a robust and tight interface with other disciplines and subsystems (e.g. thermal, power, communications) to ensure a good and consistent system-level design

• Bachelor's degree in aerospace engineering, computer science/software engineering, or an engineering discipline 
• Software development experience in C++, Python, and/or MATLAB/Simulink

• Master's or PhD in aerospace engineering, computer science/software engineering, or an engineering discipline 
• Basic familiarity with the GNC discipline and associated technical fundamentals
• Extremely strong technical fundamentals in the areas of spacecraft attitude and orbit dynamics, navigation filtering and/or control systems design
• Capable of identifying and solving complex problems with a high degree of autonomy 
• Willingness to take on a large scope of ownership over complex problems and solve them in a multi-disciplinary fashion, striving for system and mission-level optimality 
• Ability to work in a fast-paced, dynamic engineering environment, with a steadfast commitment to continuous improvement 
• Demonstrated experience owning, designing, testing, and flying real-world GNC engineering solutions, preferably on space vehicles 
• Experience with on-orbit space vehicle operations, commanding, debugging, and use of flight telemetry to track performance metrics and validate simulation models
• Familiarity with orbit navigation filtering using GNSS measurements and attitude navigation using star trackers/rate gyros
• Strong understanding of unit testing, regression testing, and CI/CD within a complex software development environment
• Familiarity with GNC algorithm unit testing and implementation in flight software
• Experience with Git, Linux, Confluence, and Jira
• Active Top Secret, Top Secret SCI, or DOE Level Q clearance, or the ability to obtain and maintain one

• Able to work extended hours and weekends as needed to support critical path development and/or critical on-orbit operations
• An active clearance may provide the opportunity for you to work on sensitive SpaceX missions; if so, you will be subject to pre-employment drug and random drug and alcohol test

• To conform to U.S. Government export regulations, applicant must be a (i) U.S. citizen or national, (ii) U.S. lawful, permanent resident (aka green card holder), (iii) Refugee under 8 U.S.C. § 1157, or (iv) Asylee under 8 U.S.C. § 1158, or be eligible to obtain the required authorizations from the U.S. Department of State. Learn more about the ITAR here.  

SpaceX is an Equal Opportunity Employer; employment with SpaceX is governed on the basis of merit, competence and qualifications and will not be influenced in any manner by race, color, religion, gender, national origin/ethnicity, veteran status, disability status, age, sexual orientation, gender identity, marital status, mental or physical disability or any other legally protected status.

Applicants wishing to view a copy of SpaceX’s Affirmative Action Plan for veterans and individuals with disabilities, or applicants requiring reasonable accommodation to the application/interview process should reach out to [email protected].