SpaceX
GNC Engineer, ADCS (Starshield)
About this role
SpaceX seeks a GNC Engineer to design and develop attitude determination and control system software for Starshield satellites, a government-focused earth observation and communications platform. You'll own complex spacecraft dynamics modeling, navigation filtering, flight software implementation, and hardware-in-the-loop testing to ensure mission-critical vehicle autonomy and pointing performance.
What you'll do
- Design and implement satellite GNC flight software across all mission phases, including off-nominal scenarios
- Develop concepts of operations balancing thermal, power, momentum, and payload-pointing constraints
- Build onboard GNC algorithms for vehicle autonomy, fault tolerance, and navigation/control performance
- Perform high-fidelity 6DOF dynamic modeling, Monte Carlo simulation analysis, and HITL testing
- Design and optimize navigation filtering and spacecraft control systems
- Collaborate across thermal, power, and communications subsystems for integrated system-level design
What they're looking for
- C++, Python, MATLAB/Simulink software development
- Attitude determination and state estimation algorithms
- Spacecraft attitude and orbit dynamics
- Navigation filtering and control systems design
- 6DOF simulation and Monte Carlo analysis
- Hardware-in-the-loop (HITL) testing
- On-orbit operations and flight telemetry analysis
- Unit testing, regression testing, and CI/CD practices
Opens the application — the Jobs AI extension fills it for you. Set up autofill
Opens the official application on the employer’s site. No login required.
SpaceX
SpaceX develops advanced spacecraft and satellite systems, including the Starshield government satellite constellation and Starfall re-entry cargo capsule for global delivery. The company is hiring engineers in avionics integration, software test automation, mechanical design, and hardware reliability to validate flight-critical systems and ensure mission success.
- Website
- spacex.com
Likely interview questions
- Describe your experience developing attitude determination algorithms—what sensors and filtering techniques have you implemented?
- Walk us through a complex GNC problem you owned end-to-end, from design through flight validation.