Senior Optical Navigation, Terrain-Relative Navigation (Lunar)
Confirmed on the employer's own hiring board on Nov 10, 2026. First seen by Alion on Nov 8, 2026. Impulse Space scores A on the Alion truth index.
As the Senior Optical Navigation (OpNav) Responsible Engineer at Impulse Space, you will own the terrain-relative navigation (TRN) system that brings our lunar lander from low lunar orbit to a precise, safe touchdown. You will be the single technical owner and product owner for TRN: you'll set the requirements, architecture, development roadmap and verification strategy, and you'll pace the program so the capability is ready when the vehicle is. You will work closely with GNC, flight software, avionics, mission design, and test to turn a lunar landing mission into a navigation system that is defined, built, verified, and flown.
Responsibilities
- Own the TRN system end to end: concept of operations, requirements, architecture, and the interfaces
- Turn mission and landing needs into flowed-down navigation requirements and error budgets
- As product owner for TRN: maintain the technical roadmap, prioritized backlog, and development milestones, aligning with lander integration, test, and mission schedules
- Coordinate across multiple teams to achieve system-level success
- Lead make/buy and sensor trades for descent navigation: cameras, compute, and more
- Define the onboard map and reference-data pipeline
- Lead and define the TRN verification strategy across analysis, synthetic-image simulation, software-in-the-loop (SIL) and hardware-in-the-loop (HIL) testing with image injection, Monte Carlo campaigns, and field or flight testing
- Define TRN fault detection, health monitoring, and fallback modes with GNC and autonomy
- Represent TRN in design reviews and risk reviews. Communicate status, trades, and risk to engineering and leadership
- Support integration, test campaigns, and mission operations through descent and landing
Minimum Qualifications
- Bachelor's degree in Aerospace Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Robotics, Computer Science, Physics, or a related discipline
- 8+ years of experience in spacecraft or aircraft navigation, optical/vision-based navigation, or GNC systems engineering
- Demonstrated experience defining requirements, interfaces, and error budgets for a navigation or sensing system
- Demonstrated work in verification, simulation, or test of navigation or perception systems
- Experience with flight- or development-hardware selection, procurement, or test
- Working knowledge of state estimation (e.g., Kalman filtering) and how measurement errors affect navigation performance
- Proficiency in Python and/or MATLAB; ability to read and review C++ flight code
- Excellent technical communication skills
Preferred Skills and Experience
- 10+ years of experience in spacecraft or aircraft navigation, optical/vision-based navigation, or GNC systems engineering
- Demonstrated experience with terrain-relative navigation, precision landing, or hazard detection
- Experience with landmark, crater, or map-relative localization and feature-tracking algorithms
- Experience with lunar or planetary map products and tools (e.g., Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter imagery and digital elevation models)
- Experience with camera models, calibration, radiometry, and synthetic scene or image generation for testing and system validation
- Experience with descent sensors such as laser altimeters, Doppler lidar or velocimeters, and flash lidar
- Experience running field, or flight test campaigns for navigation sensors
- Product owner or technical lead experience pacing a team’s development effort, managing a backlog, or overseeing suppliers
- Experience with powered descent, entry-descent-landing, rendezvous and proximity operations, or other deep-space missions
- Experience in a startup or fast-paced, iterative hardware development environment
Additional Information:
Compensation bands are determined by role, level, location, and alignment with market data. Individual level and base pay is determined on a case-by-case basis and may vary based on job-related skills, education, experience, technical capabilities and internal equity. In addition to base salary, for full-time hires, you may also be eligible for long-term incentives, in the form of stock options, and access to medical, vision & dental coverage as well as access to a 401(k) retirement plan.
Impulse Space’s spacecraft manufacturing business is subject to U.S. export regulations including the International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR) and Export Administration Regulations (EAR). This position requires applicants to be either U.S. Persons (i.e., U.S. citizen, U.S. national, lawful permanent U.S. resident (green card holder), an individual granted asylum in the U.S., or an individual admitted in U.S. refugee status) or persons eligible to obtain an export license from the U.S. Departments of State, Commerce, or other applicable U.S. government agencies. Learn more about the ITAR here.
Impulse Space is an Equal Opportunity Employer; employment with Impulse Space is governed on the basis of merit, competence and qualifications and will not be influenced in any manner by race, color, religion, gender, national origin/ethnicity, veteran status, disability status, age, sexual orientation, gender identity, marital status, mental or physical disability or any other legally protected status.