Star Catcher
Senior Electrical Engineer - Controls (Pointing, Acquisition & Tracking)
Jacksonville, Florida, United States · Senior · Full-time · Posted Oct 8, 2026
- Experience
- 5+ years; senior-level selection also considers demonstrated architecture ownership, integrated hardware verification, cross-disciplinary decisions, and technical leadership.
- Education
- Bachelor's degree in Electrical Engineering, Controls, Applied Physics, or a related technical discipline.
- Visa sponsorship
- Must be a U.S. citizen, lawful permanent resident, protected individual as defined by 8 U.S.C. 1324b(a)(3), or eligible to obtain required U.S. Department of State authorizations under U.S. Government space technology export regulations, including ITAR.
About the job
Lead development, implementation, verification, and performance assessment of spacecraft pointing, acquisition, and tracking controls for optical power delivery.
What you'll do
- Own PAT control and estimation architecture, error budgets, models, and interfaces across spacecraft subsystems.
- Develop and verify detection, estimation, sensor-fusion, and real-time control algorithms using simulation, replay, hardware-in-the-loop, and integrated testing.
- Lead architecture trade studies and technical reviews, support program pursuits, and mentor engineers.
What they ask for
- Bachelor's degree in Electrical Engineering, Controls, Applied Physics, or a related technical discipline.
- 5+ years developing pointing, tracking, or GNC systems.
- Demonstrated control theory, estimation, signal-processing, target-detection, centroiding, and tracking algorithm experience, including hardware validation.
- Experience with real-time embedded implementation, system identification, control-loop tuning, hardware-in-the-loop testing, and MATLAB/Simulink, Python, or equivalent tools.
Nice to have
- Flight heritage in PAT, optical tracking, or line-of-sight stabilization; experience with orbital acquisition planning, active illumination/lidar, or fast steering mirrors and gimbals.
Tools
MATLAB/Simulink, Python, FPGA, DSP, C/C++, NASA/DoD
Model-written summary · the original posting is authoritative