Sr Principal GNC Engineer (Autopilot / FMS)
- Location:
- Melbourne, Florida, United States of America
About Northrop Grumman
Northrop Grumman solves the toughest problems in space, aeronautics, defense and cyberspace to meet the ever-evolving needs of our customers worldwide. Our 90,000 employees are Defining Possible every day using science, technology and engineering to create and deliver advanced systems, products and services. Northrop Grumman careers and internships are as varied as your interests, with a lifetime of potential that will allow you to work together with people from many backgrounds, personal passions and disciplines.
Northrop Grumman Aeronautics Systems sector is hiring a Senior Principal Guidance Navigation and Controls (GNC) Engineer with a focus on autopilot and flight management systems (FMS) to join our Vehicle Engineering team of qualified, diverse individuals in Melbourne, Florida.
Responsibilities may include:
- Design, develop, implement, verify, and test algorithms, software, and simulation tools to perform GNC of manned aircraft
- Develop control laws to meet air vehicle performance, flying qualities and stability margin requirements, both on-ground and in-flight
- Develop system and software requirements for GNC features and support requirement verification through test procedure development, lab testing and reporting
- Design pilot relief autopilot and associated logic functions
- Develop air vehicle system linear and non-linear dynamic simulation models and integrate models into software and hardware-in-the-loop simulation environments
- Define and execute performance and flying qualities analysis
- Support pilot-in-the-loop simulation handling qualities testing
- Analyze air vehicle flight test data and support flight test activities
- Utilize excellent communication skills to report program milestones, technical approaches, and findings to GNC as well as program management
Basic Qualifications:
- Sr Principal Engineer: BS in a STEM discipline and 8 years of relevant experience; OR MS in a STEM discipline and 6 years of relevant experience
- Knowledge of fixed-wing aircraft flight dynamics
- Experience working on manned aircraft autopilot
- Experience with any of the following:
- Experience developing aircraft LNAV (Lateral Navigation), VNAV (Vertical Navigation), and/or RNAV (Area Navigation)
- Experience coordinating/developing of concept of operations, architecture, and requirements for flight management systems (FMS) and/or manned autopilot and pilot relief software
- Experience with mission planning, waypoints, waypoint leg types, waypoint sequencing
- Experience with verification test case development and lab testing of FMS and/or manned autopilot and pilot relief software
- Experience using MATLAB to create, process, analyze, and visually represent data
- Must have an active DoD Secret or higher clearance (with a background investigation completed within the last 6 years or currently enrolled into Continuous Evaluation)
- Must have the ability to obtain and maintain Special Access Program (SAP) clearance prior to the commencement of employment
Preferred Qualifications:
- Experience using linear control principles and tools to design feedback control systems
- Experience analyzing non-linear simulations of aircraft closed-loop dynamics
- Experience designing, developing, and implementing flight software algorithms to support GNC functions for air vehicles
- Experience designing, developing, and implementing simulation software to test and verify mission requirements for air vehicles
- Experience with navigation functions including the statistical processing of measured data points and their substitution into algorithms simulating physical reality
- Experience with guidance functions including the formulation of specific equations to achieve a desired position, orientation, or trajectory
- C/C++ and/or Python Programming Skills
- Private Pilot’s License and experience using aircraft autopilot modes