Principal GNC & Trajectory Analyst

Join a missile defense targets program office team as its GNC and trajectory lead. You will refine and implement target trajectories for the flight tests that validate missile defense weapons and sensors, with a focus on guidance, navigation and control, modeling and simulation, and vehicle performance.

What You Will Do

• Support development of missile defense target vehicles for the targets program office

• Support target design, analysis and test across the targets systems engineering team, including requirements, M&S, test analysis and reporting

• Apply missile physical, kinematic and signature characteristics to engineering work and data products

• Generate and analyze 6-DoF and 3-DoF target trajectories in TAOS and in-house MATLAB, Python and C++ tools

• Analyze onboard instrumentation data and reconstruct trajectories for flight test reporting

• Build analysis and engineering tools with experts across several technical areas

Required Qualifications

• 12+ years on missile defense or other DoD programs

• Strong grasp of GNC, vehicle dynamics, equations of motion, coordinate systems and aerodynamics

• Missile trajectory analysis across coordinate frames, endo- and exo-atmospheric flight and key trajectory parameters

• Orbital mechanics: ephemeris, propagation, perturbations, orbit determination and maneuver planning

• MATLAB, Python, Java, C# and other languages

• M&S tools such as TAOS and STK

• Strong written and verbal communication

• Microsoft Word, Excel and PowerPoint

• Master's degree in physics, engineering, math or another STEM field (a STEM Bachelor's plus 7+ years can be considered)

• Active DoD Secret clearance (U.S. citizenship required)

• Onsite in Huntsville, AL

Preferred Qualifications

• Familiarity with missile defense or DoD programs and processes

• Any of: optical or RCS signatures, trajectory, CAD or design

• Strong attention to detail and able to juggle multiple tasks

• Explains technical detail clearly to technical and non-technical audiences