Engineer II, Flight Controls – X-BAT (R4816)

What you'll do:

• Design and implement flight control laws and supporting logic across multiple flight regimes.
• Build and mature high-fidelity 6DOF simulation environments used for control development and ensure accurate pre-flight performance predictions
• Execute verification activities, including linear analysis, Monte Carlo campaigns, disturbance/sensitivity/degraded operation testing, and HIL validation
• Diagnose and resolve simulation-to-test mismatches, including unidentified dynamics and modeling gaps
• Support flight test operations and contribute to rapid iteration between flights
• Work closely with propulsion, aero, actuation, sensors, state estimation, and autonomy teams to ensure accurate integrated system performance in the 6DOF simulation environment.

Required qualifications:

3+ years of experience working flight controls / GNC on real flight vehicles.
Experience performing one or more of the following technical flight control assignments:
Vehicle Modeling and Simulation:
Demonstrated experience implementing time-accurate mathematical models of the vehicle aerodynamics, mass properties, fuel system, propulsion system, sensors, actuators into a 6DOF simulation environment.
Control Law Design:
Demonstrated experience designing inner and outer loop control laws for fixed-wing aircraft using classical or modern control techniques.
Control Allocation:
Demonstrated experience designing control allocation algorithms for over-actuated systems handling actuator saturation, rate limits, failures and degradation.
Guidance and Autonomy Integration:
Demonstrated experience designing and testing real-time trajectory generation algorithms.
Verification and Validation:
Demonstrated experience executing linear, nonlinear, and Monte Carlo Analyses in a 6DOF simulation environment.
Demonstrated experience executing sensitivity studies, worst-case disturbance analysis, and/or failure detection and accommodation studies validating control robustness against requirements.
Demonstrated experience characterizing aircraft flying qualities within a high-fidelity 6DOF Simulation framework.
Strong background in aircraft flight dynamics and 6DOF simulation
Proficiency in C++, MATLAB/Simulink, and/or Python.
Ability to obtain and maintain a U.S. security clearance

Preferred qualifications:

Autonomous systems or missile/UAV GNC background
Familiarity with:
Sensor and air data systems
CI/CD pipelines and modern DevSecOps practices
Experience with HIL or integrated simulation/test environments and Linux-based development workflows (Git, etc.)
Experience operating in rapid development environments with tight iteration loops between simulation and test