{"id":3977169,"url":"https://alion.io/job/impulse-space-senior-optical-navigation-responsible-engineer-lunar-2","title":"Senior Optical Navigation, Terrain-Relative Navigation (Lunar)","company":{"id":58617,"name":"Impulse Space","domain":"impulsespace.com","url":"https://alion.io/company/impulse-space","size_band":"201-500","is_staffing_agency":false,"employer_type":"direct","is_intermediary":false,"listed_via":null,"ats_vendor":"Pinpoint","truth_index":{"grade":"A","score":100,"open_postings":5,"ghost_share":0,"stale_share":0,"repost_share":0,"time_to_fill_p50_days":25,"computed_at":"2026-11-10T06:52:35Z"}},"role":"Hardware","role_family":"Hardware","seniority":"senior","employment_type":"full_time","work_mode":"on_site","remote_scope":null,"remote_scope_basis":null,"remote_working_hours":null,"hiring_geo_confidence":"structured","locations":["Boulder, United States"],"countries":["US"],"hiring_countries":[],"hiring_countries_total":0,"salary":{"min":210000,"max":300000,"currency":"USD","period":"year","gross":null,"usd_annual":300000},"salary_estimate":null,"experience_years_min":10,"visa_sponsorship":false,"relocation_package":false,"has_equity":true,"technologies":[{"name":"C++","optional":false},{"name":"MATLAB","optional":false},{"name":"Python","optional":false},{"name":"SLI/SLO/SLA","optional":false}],"status":"live","first_seen_at":"2026-11-08T18:31:14Z","employer_posted_date":"2026-11-09","last_verified_at":"2026-11-10T15:31:57Z","board_verified":true,"closed_at":null,"days_open":2,"trust":{"level":"ok","repost_count":null,"flags":[],"days_open":2},"description":"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.\nResponsibilities\nOwn the TRN system end to end: concept of operations, requirements, architecture, and the interfaces\nTurn mission and landing needs into flowed-down navigation requirements and error budgets\nAs product owner for TRN: maintain the technical roadmap, prioritized backlog, and development milestones, aligning with lander integration, test, and mission schedules\nCoordinate across multiple teams to achieve system-level success \nLead make/buy and sensor trades for descent navigation: cameras, compute, and more\nDefine the onboard map and reference-data pipeline\nLead 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\nDefine TRN fault detection, health monitoring, and fallback modes with GNC and autonomy\nRepresent TRN in design reviews and risk reviews. Communicate status, trades, and risk to engineering and leadership\nSupport integration, test campaigns, and mission operations through descent and landing\nMinimum Qualifications\nBachelor's degree in Aerospace Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Robotics, Computer Science, Physics, or a related discipline \n8+ years of experience in spacecraft or aircraft navigation, optical/vision-based navigation, or GNC systems engineering \nDemonstrated experience defining requirements, interfaces, and error budgets for a navigation or sensing system \nDemonstrated work in verification, simulation, or test of navigation or perception systems \nExperience with flight- or development-hardware selection, procurement, or test \nWorking knowledge of state estimation (e.g., Kalman filtering) and how measurement errors affect navigation performance \nProficiency in Python and/or MATLAB; ability to read and review C++ flight code \nExcellent technical communication skills \n\nPreferred Skills and Experience\n10+ years of experience in spacecraft or aircraft navigation, optical/vision-based navigation, or GNC systems engineering \nDemonstrated experience with terrain-relative navigation, precision landing, or hazard detection \nExperience with landmark, crater, or map-relative localization and feature-tracking algorithms \nExperience with lunar or planetary map products and tools (e.g., Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter imagery and digital elevation models) \nExperience with camera models, calibration, radiometry, and synthetic scene or image generation for testing and system validation \nExperience with descent sensors such as laser altimeters, Doppler lidar or velocimeters, and flash lidar \nExperience running field, or flight test campaigns for navigation sensors \nProduct owner or technical lead experience pacing a team’s development effort, managing a backlog, or overseeing suppliers \nExperience with powered descent, entry-descent-landing, rendezvous and proximity operations, or other deep-space missions \nExperience in a startup or fast-paced, iterative hardware development environment \nAdditional Information:\nCompensation 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.\nImpulse 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.\nImpulse 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.","description_format":"text","description_chars":5198,"description_truncated":false,"requirements":{"experience_years_min":10,"management_years_min":null,"team_size_min":null,"manages_managers":false,"education":{"level":"bachelor","optional":false},"security_clearance":true,"languages":[]},"benefits":["Equity","Retirement plans","Stock options"],"hiring_locations":[{"name":"United States","iso":"US","kind":"country"}],"hiring_excludes":[],"relocation_offered":false,"industries":["Space Services"],"lifecycle":[{"event":"open","at":"2026-11-09T18:31:14Z"}],"visa":[],"liveness":{"score":90,"band":"hot","label":"Hiring now","p_open":1,"p_active":0.903,"p_room":1,"age_days":1,"expected_fill_days":25,"reasons":["conf:1","velocity","win:early","comp:brand"],"computed_at":"2026-11-10T06:52:35Z"},"pay":{"stated_usd_annual":300000,"is_top_pay":true},"html_url":"https://alion.io/job/impulse-space-senior-optical-navigation-responsible-engineer-lunar-2","json_url":"https://alion.io/job/impulse-space-senior-optical-navigation-responsible-engineer-lunar-2.json","meta":{"generated_at":"2026-11-10T19:18:59Z","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":10294,"day_limit":null,"remaining_today":null,"minute_limit":300,"resets_at":"2026-11-11T00:00:00Z"}},"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":58617},"rest":"https://alion.io/mcp/rest/get_company?id=58617"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=company.slices&for=job%2Fimpulse-space-senior-optical-navigation-responsible-engineer-lunar-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%2Fimpulse-space-senior-optical-navigation-responsible-engineer-lunar-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%2Fimpulse-space-senior-optical-navigation-responsible-engineer-lunar-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/impulse-space-senior-optical-navigation-responsible-engineer-lunar-2\", \"note\": \"what you need it for\"}"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=company.verify&for=job%2Fimpulse-space-senior-optical-navigation-responsible-engineer-lunar-2"}],"agent":{"mcp":"https://alion.io/mcp/jobs","mcp_open":"https://alion.io/mcp/open","next":[{"tool":"get_job","arguments":{"id":3977169}},{"tool":"search_jobs","arguments":{"company":"impulsespace.com","detail":"compact"}},{"tool":"match_people","arguments":{"job_id":3977169},"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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