GNC Engineer

Responsibilities

• Design, implement, and fly guidance, navigation, and control systems for long-endurance stratospheric aircraft
• Own the GNC stack end to end: modeling, simulation, control law design, estimation, tuning, validation, and flight test
• Develop and maintain vehicle dynamics models and simulation environments
• Design and tune controllers for launch, climb, station-keeping, loiter, descent, and recovery
• Integrate GNC tightly with avionics, sensors, propulsion, and autonomy software
• Debug and iterate rapidly using flight data, hardware-in-the-loop, and field testing
• Support integration, production bring-up, and flight operations in the desert

Requirements

• 1+ years working on real GNC systems for aircraft, UAVs, spacecraft, or complex dynamic systems
• Strong fundamentals in dynamics, controls, estimation, and linear systems
• Familiarity with state estimation (EKF/UKF), sensor fusion, and inertial navigation
• Experience designing and tuning control systems that fly on real vehicles
• Ability to work from first principles and validate with test and flight data
• Ability to troubleshoot in the field and move fast

Benefits

• Meaningful equity
• Top market salary and bonuses
• Health, dental, and vision insurance
• Daily lunch

About the Company

Icarus builds solar-powered aircraft that fly at 60,000 ft for weeks at a time, delivering persistent, affordable, and scalable presence from the stratosphere.