Control Actuation System Engineer

About the Team

Vehicle Engineering owns the missile as a physical object from design through flight: structures, mechanical integration of the full subsystem stack, and the build.

About the Role

You will own the fin control actuation system: motor sizing, gear train, mechanical design, servo control law, dyno characterization, hardware-in-the-loop integration, and environmental qualification. Drive electronics are designed by Avionics and embedded firmware by Avionics software, both to your spec; you close the loop with them on the bench. Hands-on from clean-sheet design through ground test and flight. For someone who has taken a tactical-class actuator from sizing through hardware-in-the-loop and flight, ideally on a missile, munition, or guided projectile.

What You'll Do

• Own the fin actuation system across the F-series airframe: motor, gear train, output shaft, position sensor, and the servo control law that ties them together.
• Size the motor and gear train against aero hinge moments, slew rate, and stall torque across the Mach envelope. Defend bandwidth and authority against autopilot requirements.
• Spec the actuator drive electronics with Avionics: power stage, current sensing, position interface, and motor-bus partitioning.
• Spec the embedded servo firmware with Avionics software: current loop, position loop, command interface, and fault handling. Review the implementation and tune from the bench.
• Stand up the actuator dyno from zero: load fixture, instrumentation, automated test sequences, and frequency-response and step-response characterization.
• Run hardware-in-the-loop with the flight computer and GNC autopilot. Close the loop against the plant model and the integrated airframe.
• Own environmental qualification of the actuator stack: shock, vibration, temperature, humidity, and EMI.
• Take the subsystem from prototype through and flight, including post-flight teardown and data review.
• Make the cost call on every gear set, magnet, sensor, and connector. Pick the simplest part that meets the requirement.

Skills We're Hiring For

• B.S. in Mechanical, Electrical, Aerospace, or Mechatronics Engineering. M.S. preferred.
• 7+ years owning electromechanical actuators from sizing through bench validation and integration, with at least one actuator taken through hardware-in-the-loop or flight.
• Hands-on mechanical design of compact actuators: motor selection, gear trains, output shafts, bearings, and packaging under aero and shock load.
• Fluency with brushless motor characteristics end-to-end: PMSM and BLDC, commutation, current control, and sensored or sensorless schemes.
• Servo-loop fluency: frequency response, bandwidth, phase margin, anti-windup, friction and backlash compensation. Can tune a real actuator, not only simulate one.
• Working fluency with motor-drive electronics and embedded servo firmware sufficient to spec requirements to Avionics and partner on tuning at the bench.
• MATLAB/Simulink or Python for plant modeling and controller design.
• Hands-on bench discipline: dyno setup, frequency-response characterization, fault injection, and environmental testing.

Bonus Points For

• Direct flight experience on a tactical missile, munition, interceptor, or guided projectile control actuation system.
• Hands-on experience writing motor-control firmware or designing motor drive boards. Useful for tuning the loop across the interface with Avionics.
• High-shock and high-vibration actuator qualification: launch loads, gun-launched munitions, or hard-impact events.
• Hinge-moment characterization or actuator-load modeling alongside an aerodynamicist.
• Production transition: moved an actuator from prototype to volume manufacturing, including factory acceptance test flow.
• Vendor management across the motor, magnet, gearing, sensor, and connector supply chain.
• Familiarity with insensitive munitions and tactical-missile qualification environments.
• Hobbyist drone, robotics, motorsport, or model-rocketry build and flight experience that translates to packaging and field-handling intuition.