GNC Engineer

About this role

As a GNC/AOCS Engineer at Spire, you will operate as part of a technical team who maintains responsibility across the full lifecycle of the Spire GNC product and its subcomponents. The GNC team interfaces directly with many engineering groups to conduct R&D, design, manufacturing, and operations activities, ultimately ensuring all current and future spacecraft systems satisfy their mission. Ideal candidates will embrace the commercialization of nanosatellite systems and adapt to low-cost, fast-paced systems design, development, and implementation methodologies that set Spire apart from our competition.

In this fast-paced environment, the design to launch cycle is measured in weeks and months, not years. What You’ll Do: Design, evaluate, select, qualify and implement flight sensors, including magnetometers, sun sensors, inertial measurement devices, Earth sensors, and/or star trackers. Design, evaluate, select, qualify and implement flight actuators, including magnetic torque elements, reaction wheels, and propulsion systems.

Design, implement and maintain simulation models for GNC subcomponents in our 6-DOF simulation environment. Technical ownership of current and future GNC avionics peripherals, supporting troubleshooting, design and updates to improve reliability and performance. Working closely with cross-functional teams, including hardware, software, and systems engineers, to integrate avionics solutions into the larger platform. Develop component qualification and acceptance processes and be hands-on in laboratory and manufacturing environments.

Key Skills: Experience with flight sensors for spacecraft attitude determination/estimation. Experience with actuators, including actuator sizing, modelling, design and integration. A solid foundation in spacecraft attitude dynamics and control algorithms, with emphasis sensor ingestions and actuator command calculation. Experience working hands-on with HW and familiarity with 'hardware-in-the-loop` simulation. Experience developing software using C/Python.

Have experience or familiarity with the Linux development environment. Have experience working with external engineering contractors. Preferred Skills: Experience writing flight software. Experience designing and/or implementing Kalman filters and feedback control for attitude estimation. Experience with C or C++ development for embedded systems. Experience with spacecraft design. Experience with spacecraft assembly, integration, and testing.