Vast
Senior GNC Engineer
$160K–$227K
Long Beach, California, United States · Senior · Full-time · Posted Jun 4, 2026
- Experience
- 6+ years of spacecraft GNC or ADCS development experience.
- Education
- Bachelor's degree in Aerospace Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Physics, Mathematics, or a related technical discipline.
About the job
Own end-to-end guidance, navigation, and control for a constellation-ready spacecraft bus, including ADCS architecture, algorithms, simulation, testing, and pointing performance.
What you'll do
- Develop and validate spacecraft ADCS algorithms, 6DOF simulations, and hardware-in-the-loop testing.
- Define pointing budgets and CMG and sensor performance requirements; work with payload customers on pointing and stability needs.
- Support CMG testing and ADCS commissioning, and build a GNC team as the program grows.
What they ask for
- Bachelor's degree in Aerospace Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Physics, Mathematics, or a related technical discipline.
- 6+ years of spacecraft GNC or ADCS development experience.
- Spacecraft GNC algorithm development experience, including attitude determination, control law design, and actuator management; experience with reaction wheels or CMGs.
- Experience building and validating 6DOF spacecraft simulations, developing pointing budgets, and designing and executing HITL test environments.
Nice to have
- CMG experience, including steering laws, singularity avoidance, or pyramid configuration optimization.
- Momentum management for LEO spacecraft, star tracker and IMU selection or characterization, agile/small-sat GNC, or GNC flight software implementation.
Pay
$159,900 — $226,980 USD (base salary)
Tools
CMG, GTsim, 6DOF, HITL, star tracker, IMU, sun sensor, GNSS receiver
Model-written summary · the original posting is authoritative