Director, Guidance Navigation & Control
$200,000–$273,000 year
On-siteIrvine, California, United States
Job Summary
Set the long-term technical vision, strategy, and roadmap for GNC capabilities, tools, processes, and team development. Own system-level architecture decisions for guidance, navigation, control, simulation, validation, and autonomy-related functions. Lead the GNC team by owning structure, hiring plans, and development while serving as senior technical authority for trade studies, requirements, interfaces, performance targets, and risk management. Establish engineering standards, review practices, modeling and simulation expectations, verification methods, and certification approaches. Mentor senior engineers and technical leads to raise the organization's technical bar. Drive make-versus-buy decisions, provide technical oversight of suppliers, and manage external partnerships for GNC/RPO technologies. Represent GNC technical direction and program status in executive reviews, customer discussions, design reviews, and major decision forums. Employees may support alternate or extended shifts during peak periods.
Required Qualifications
- Minimum 10 years of experience in roles related to guidance, navigation, and control engineering, with progressive growth from hands-on technical execution to senior technical leadership, architecture ownership, and strategic decision-making
- Expertise implementing GNC algorithms as production flight code (C/C++) and ground analysis tools (Python/MATLAB)
- Extensive experience leading GNC engineering teams for complex aerospace, robotics, autonomous systems, defense, space, aviation, or similarly platforms
- Proven experience supporting satellite bus operations, providing support for GNC-related activities and resolving on-orbit anomalies
- Demonstrated ownership of GNC architecture, technology roadmaps, and system-level technical direction across multiple programs or product generations
- Deep expertise in control theory, estimation/navigation, flight dynamics, guidance algorithms, modeling and simulation, and verification and validation
- Proven ability to influence executive stakeholders, manage technical risk, and make high-impact decisions under uncertainty
- Experience building, mentoring, and scaling high-performing engineering teams
- Strong communication skills with the ability to translate complex technical topics into clear strategical recommendations
- Must be a U.S. citizen or national, U.S. lawful permanent resident, Refugee under 8 U.S.C. § 1157, Asylee under 8 U.S.C. § 1158, or eligible to obtain the required authorizations from the U.S. Department of State
Desired Qualifications
- Direct spacecraft GNC experience in SDA, autonomous navigation, rendezvous safety, maneuver planning, or proximity operations
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