{"id":4100688,"url":"https://alion.io/job/amazon-satellite-gnc-engineer-amazon-leo-2","title":"Satellite GNC Engineer, Amazon Leo","company":{"id":19,"name":"Amazon","domain":"amazon.com","url":"https://alion.io/company/amazon","size_band":"5000+","is_staffing_agency":false,"employer_type":"direct","is_intermediary":false,"listed_via":null,"ats_vendor":"Career site","truth_index":{"grade":"B","score":78,"open_postings":4525,"ghost_share":0,"stale_share":0.887,"repost_share":0.003,"time_to_fill_p50_days":30,"computed_at":"2026-11-11T05:49:22Z"}},"role":"Aerospace","role_family":"Aerospace","seniority":"middle","employment_type":"full_time","work_mode":"on_site","remote_scope":null,"remote_scope_basis":null,"remote_working_hours":null,"hiring_geo_confidence":"structured","locations":["Redmond, United States"],"countries":["US"],"hiring_countries":[],"hiring_countries_total":0,"salary":{"min":136000,"max":184000,"currency":"USD","period":"year","gross":null,"usd_annual":184000},"salary_estimate":null,"experience_years_min":4,"visa_sponsorship":false,"relocation_package":false,"has_equity":true,"technologies":[{"name":"C++","optional":false},{"name":"Human-in-the-Loop","optional":false}],"status":"live","first_seen_at":"2026-11-11T21:39:47Z","employer_posted_date":"2026-11-11","last_verified_at":"2026-11-12T03:23:02Z","board_verified":true,"closed_at":null,"days_open":0,"trust":{"level":"ok","repost_count":null,"flags":[],"days_open":0},"description":"Amazon Leo is building a constellation of thousands of low Earth orbit satellites. It will bring fast, reliable internet to customers beyond the reach of existing networks.\nOn the Guidance, Navigation and Control (GNC) team, you will design the algorithms, simulations and onboard autonomy that keep every satellite precisely pointed and stable. Your work lets the payload serve customers on the ground, and it keeps the fleet flying safely.\nThis is satellite GNC at constellation scale. The constellation is launching and growing today, so you will see your work go from concept to orbit, and then fly on many satellites.\nIn this role, you will:\n- Take your GNC algorithms from concept to orbit, and stay with them through integration, test and on-orbit operations.\n- Write the production C++ flight code for your own algorithms. The code that flies is the code you write.\n- Solve hard problems in precise pointing, payload cueing and fleet autonomy.\n- Work across design, simulation, test and flight operations, not a narrow slice of the lifecycle.\n**Export Control Requirement:** Due to applicable export control laws and regulations, candidates must be a U.S. citizen or national, U.S. permanent resident (i.e., current Green Card holder), or lawfully admitted into the U.S. as a refugee or granted asylum.\nKey job responsibilities\n- Design and analyze algorithms for state estimation, attitude determination and control, precise pointing and payload cueing against demanding performance requirements.\n- Implement these algorithms in production C++ flight software. Our GNC engineers own their algorithms all the way into flight, and partner with our embedded software engineers to integrate and test them.\n- Write concepts of operations for each phase of a satellite's life, from launch and orbit raising to service and deorbit, including failures and recovery. Balance what the payload needs against momentum, power, thermal and ground-contact limits.\n- Develop momentum management strategies with reaction wheels and magnetic torquers. Help select, size and place the GNC sensors and actuators for future satellites, and design the algorithms that use them. These include star trackers, magnetometers, sun sensors, IMUs and GNSS receivers.\n- Develop onboard autonomy, including Fault Detection, Isolation and Recovery (FDIR), so that the fleet operates safely at scale with minimal ground intervention.\n- Build and validate satellite and constellation models and simulations at several levels of fidelity, including 6-DOF simulation and Monte Carlo analysis. Verify closed-loop performance in hardware-in-the-loop (HITL) tests.\n- Support component environmental tests, functional and performance checkout, and subsystem and satellite integration in our labs.\n- Analyze telemetry from the whole fleet. Build the metrics, dashboards and tools that track pointing performance and payload operations time as the constellation grows, and use them to improve the fleet.\n- Operate the GNC system on orbit and take part in the team's on-call rotation. Review fleet data, support maneuvers, and resolve anomalies when on-orbit behavior differs from the ground model.\n- Review designs and code with the team, and document your algorithms, analyses and results clearly.\nA day in the life\nThis role covers a wide range of problems across the spacecraft and the network. You will derive and prototype estimation and control algorithms, and then turn them into production flight code. You will prove them in 6-DOF and Monte Carlo simulation and in hardware-in-the-loop tests in the lab. You will support satellite integration. When a satellite does not behave as the ground model predicted, you will dig into fleet telemetry, find the cause and drive the fix. You will own each problem end to end, with the focus to go deep on it.\nGNC is at the center of safe flight, so you will work across the whole program. The payload, power, thermal and operations teams all depend on GNC, and you will balance their needs against the pointing and momentum budgets. You will partner closely with avionics, flight software and embedded software engineers to make your algorithms run reliably on the spacecraft. You will help the mechanical teams shape the next generation of satellite hardware, from reaction wheels to star trackers. As satellites move from design through manufacturing into orbit, you will work with systems engineering and Assembly, Integration and Test.\nThe problems are hard: tight pointing requirements, a large constellation to keep flying safely, and the chance to invent capabilities that do not exist yet. Constant work with other teams makes this a place where you keep learning and growing.\nAbout the team\nYou will join the Satellite Attitude Determination and Control team. We own GNC for our satellites end to end: algorithm design, flight software, lab integration, and flight operations of our own satellites on orbit. Our engineers bring deep experience from many satellite programs and other flight vehicles, with real strength in both our mission and the core GNC disciplines. We design, prototype, test, iterate and learn together. Because GNC is central to safe flight, we drive the concepts of operations and many of the system-level analyses on the program.\nWe also have a lot of freedom. We trust our engineers to choose their own tools and approaches for the problems they face, and to own the results. If you want the autonomy to solve hard problems your way, with a team of strong engineers, you will feel at home here.\nBasic qualifications\n- PhD, or Master's degree and 4+ years of quantitative field research experience\n- Experience developing guidance, navigation, and control algorithms for aerospace systems.\nPreferred qualifications\n- Experience converting research studies into tangible real-world changes\n- Experience with discrete and continuous optimization methodologies and algorithms\n- Experience developing guidance, navigation, and control algorithms for spacecraft\nAmazon is an equal opportunity employer and does not discriminate on the basis of protected veteran status, disability, or other legally protected status.\nOur inclusive culture empowers Amazonians to deliver the best results for our customers. If you have a disability and need a workplace accommodation or adjustment during the application and hiring process, including support for the interview or onboarding process, please visit https://amazon.jobs/content/en/how-we-hire/accommodations for more information. If the country/region you’re applying in isn’t listed, please contact your Recruiting Partner.\nThe base salary range for this position is listed below. Your Amazon package will include sign-on payments and restricted stock units (RSUs). Final compensation will be determined based on factors including experience, qualifications, and location. Amazon also offers comprehensive benefits including health insurance (medical, dental, vision, prescription, Basic Life & AD&D insurance and option for Supplemental life plans, EAP, Mental Health Support, Medical Advice Line, Flexible Spending Accounts, Adoption and Surrogacy Reimbursement coverage), 401(k) matching, paid time off, and parental leave. Learn more about our benefits at https://amazon.jobs/en/benefits.\nUSA, WA, Redmond - 136,000.00 - 184,000.00 USD annually","description_format":"text","description_chars":7337,"description_truncated":false,"requirements":{"experience_years_min":4,"management_years_min":null,"team_size_min":null,"manages_managers":false,"education":{"level":"master","optional":false},"security_clearance":true,"languages":[]},"benefits":["Health insurance","Parental leave","Restricted stock units"],"hiring_locations":[{"name":"United States","iso":"US","kind":"country"}],"hiring_excludes":[],"relocation_offered":false,"industries":["Advertising","Cloud Platforms (IaaS & PaaS)","Logistics","Streaming & OTT Platforms"],"lifecycle":[{"event":"open","at":"2026-11-11T21:39:47Z"}],"visa":[{"country":"US","licensed_sponsor":true,"adverts_offering_sponsorship_24m":0,"sanctioned_now":false,"evidence":"H-1B filings in 12 months: 23,961 · green card filings: 81","filings_12m":23961,"filings_prev_12m":24161,"green_card_filings_12m":81,"median_offered_wage_usd":161211,"route":null,"cap_exempt":false,"checked_at":"2026-11-11T07:38:50+00:00","sources":["US Department of Labor: LCA disclosure data (H-1B, H-1B1, E-3)","US Department of Labor: PERM disclosure data (green cards)"],"filings_for_role_12m":0}],"liveness":{"score":86,"band":"hot","label":"Hiring now","p_open":1,"p_active":0.86,"p_room":1,"age_days":0,"expected_fill_days":31,"reasons":["conf:0","win:early","comp:brand"],"computed_at":"2026-11-12T03:34:43Z"},"pay":{"stated_usd_annual":184000,"is_top_pay":true},"html_url":"https://alion.io/job/amazon-satellite-gnc-engineer-amazon-leo-2","json_url":"https://alion.io/job/amazon-satellite-gnc-engineer-amazon-leo-2.json","meta":{"generated_at":"2026-11-12T03:34:43Z","cache_seconds":300,"methodology":"https://alion.io/methodology","terms":"https://alion.io/terms","contact":"https://alion.io/contact","api":"https://alion.io/developers","about":"Alion is a live layer of people, companies and AI agents: who they are, whether they are real and active right now, what they do and how to work with them, readable by people and by agents and paid per call.","catalog":"https://alion.io/catalog.json","usage":{"tier":"crawler_verified","counted_by":"address","units_charged":1,"used_today":7812,"day_limit":null,"remaining_today":null,"minute_limit":300,"resets_at":"2026-11-13T00:00:00Z"}},"offers":[{"id":"company.slices","title":"One company in depth, by slice","status":"live","price":{"credits":0.1,"usd":0.01,"plus_per_slice":{"credits":0.05,"usd":0.005}},"unit":"per company, plus each slice with data","note":"the employer in depth","call":{"mcp_tool":"get_company","arguments":{"id":19},"rest":"https://alion.io/mcp/rest/get_company?id=19"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=company.slices&for=job%2Famazon-satellite-gnc-engineer-amazon-leo-2"},{"id":"market.stats","title":"A market slice: pay, demand and time to fill","status":"live","price":{"credits":2,"usd":0.2},"unit":"per slice","note":"pay, demand and time to fill for this role and place","call":{"mcp_tool":"market_stats"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=market.stats&for=job%2Famazon-satellite-gnc-engineer-amazon-leo-2"},{"id":"job.search","title":"Open jobs by role, technology, place, pay and visa","status":"live","price":{"credits":0.1,"usd":0.01},"unit":"per posting in a list","note":"similar open postings","call":{"mcp_tool":"search_jobs"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=job.search&for=job%2Famazon-satellite-gnc-engineer-amazon-leo-2"},{"id":"company.verify","title":"Is this company real and active right now","status":"pilot","price":null,"unit":"per company","request":{"url":"https://alion.io/catalog/request","method":"POST","body":"{\"offer\": \"company.verify\", \"for\": \"job/amazon-satellite-gnc-engineer-amazon-leo-2\", \"note\": \"what you need it for\"}"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=company.verify&for=job%2Famazon-satellite-gnc-engineer-amazon-leo-2"}],"agent":{"mcp":"https://alion.io/mcp/jobs","mcp_open":"https://alion.io/mcp/open","next":[{"tool":"get_job","arguments":{"id":4100688}},{"tool":"search_jobs","arguments":{"company":"amazon.com","detail":"compact"}},{"tool":"match_people","arguments":{"job_id":4100688},"note":"people open to offers who fit this vacancy"}],"note":"The same data through MCP tools: https://alion.io/mcp/open needs no sign-in (compact searches, postings, people); https://alion.io/mcp with an Alion account has everything. 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