{"id":1975357,"url":"https://alion.io/job/pivotal-gnc-engineer-ii-controls","title":"GNC Engineer - Controls","company":{"id":35040,"name":"Pivotal","domain":"pivotal.aero","url":"https://alion.io/company/pivotal-aero","size_band":null,"is_staffing_agency":false,"employer_type":"direct","is_intermediary":false,"listed_via":null,"ats_vendor":"Lever","truth_index":{"grade":"A","score":94,"open_postings":20,"ghost_share":0,"stale_share":0.05,"repost_share":0,"time_to_fill_p50_days":106,"computed_at":"2026-10-15T05:46:00Z"}},"role":"Industrial Engineering","role_family":"Industrial Engineering","seniority":"junior","employment_type":"full_time","work_mode":"on_site","remote_scope":null,"remote_scope_basis":null,"remote_working_hours":null,"hiring_geo_confidence":"structured","locations":["Palo Alto, United States"],"countries":["US"],"hiring_countries":[],"hiring_countries_total":0,"salary":null,"salary_estimate":{"min_usd":78000,"max_usd":140000,"period":"year","method":"role_seniority_country_remote_cell","sample_n":3735},"experience_years_min":2,"visa_sponsorship":false,"relocation_package":false,"has_equity":false,"technologies":[{"name":"Agile","optional":true},{"name":"C++","optional":true},{"name":"CI/CD","optional":true},{"name":"Claude","optional":true},{"name":"Git","optional":true},{"name":"MATLAB","optional":true},{"name":"Python","optional":true},{"name":"Simulink","optional":true}],"status":"live","first_seen_at":"2026-10-06T20:59:32Z","employer_posted_date":"2026-10-06","last_verified_at":"2026-10-15T08:28:55Z","board_verified":true,"closed_at":null,"days_open":8,"trust":{"level":"ok","repost_count":0,"flags":[],"days_open":8},"description":"About the Role\nThe GNC team at Pivotal develops the flight control and navigation algorithms that let our aircraft fly safely and precisely, including on the Helix family of aircraft. We are looking for a GNC Engineer II who focuses on flight controls to evaluate and tune our existing control laws, so the aircraft has stable, responsive, and predictable handling across the flight envelope.\nYou will use CONDUIT and our existing simulation environment to analyze the control laws against stability and performance criteria, tune their gains, and check their behavior in Monte Carlo and full-mission simulations before they go to flight test. You will work closely with the GNC engineers who own the control law architecture, as well as the firmware, aeromechanical, and flight test teams.\nThe ideal candidate has a solid grounding in linear control theory and aircraft flight dynamics, and enjoys the analytical work of understanding why a control system behaves the way it does and how to improve it. Experience with frequency-domain control system analysis is highly desirable.\nResponsibilities\nControl Law Analysis & Tuning\nAnalyze existing control laws against stability and performance criteria such as gain and phase margins, bandwidth, disturbance rejection, and command tracking.\nTune control law gains and parameters with CONDUIT to meet these criteria across the flight envelope.\nAssess how actuator and sensor dynamics, time delays, and saturation affect control system stability and performance.\nUpdate control law gains and parameters in our MATLAB and Simulink models and support their release into flight software.\nSimulation & Verification\nRun Monte Carlo studies in our existing simulation environment that vary aircraft parameters, disturbances, and failures to evaluate control law robustness.\nHelp identify worst-case conditions and failure scenarios for simulation-based verification, and run and analyze those cases.\nSet up and improve automated integration tests that simulate complete flight missions and check the results against requirements.\nFlight Test & Data Analysis\nSupport and analyze flight tests, comparing flight data with simulation predictions to assess control performance and refine tuning.\nDocument analyses, tuning changes, and test results to support verification activities.\nEducation\nBachelor’s degree in Aerospace Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Electrical Engineering, or a related technical field.\nExperience\n2+ years of industry experience in GNC or flight controls, or a Master’s or PhD with research focused on control systems or flight dynamics.\nStrong foundation in linear control theory, including transfer functions, state-space models, and frequency-domain analysis such as Bode and Nichols plots and stability margins.\nSolid understanding of aircraft flight dynamics, including equations of motion, linearization, and dynamic stability modes.\nHands-on experience analyzing and tuning feedback control systems, such as cascaded PID loops, on hardware or in high-fidelity simulation, whether through industry, research, student teams, or personal projects.\nExperience using simulation to evaluate control system performance, including Monte Carlo or parametric studies.\nProficiency in MATLAB and Simulink for control design, modeling, and simulation.\nProficiency in Python or MATLAB for analyzing test and flight data.\nProficiency in C or C++ for writing application-level code.\nStrong analytical, debugging, and communication skills, and the ability to work in a fast-paced, collaborative environment.\nPreferred Qualifications\nMaster’s degree or PhD in Aerospace or Mechanical Engineering or a related field, with a focus on flight controls or flight dynamics.\nExperience using CONDUIT for control system analysis and optimization.\nFamiliarity with explicit model-following, dynamic inversion, or other control architectures used in safety-critical aviation.\nFamiliarity with handling qualities and flight control specifications such as ADS-33, MIL-STD-1797, and MIL-DTL-9490.\nExperience developing flight controls for VTOL aircraft, multicopters, rotorcraft, or eVTOL platforms.\nExperience with Git, continuous integration, and agile development workflows, including automated simulation-based regression testing.\nExperience using AI-assisted development tools, such as Claude, to speed up algorithm development, coding, and data analysis.\nExperience with fault detection, or with analyzing control system behavior under failure scenarios such as motor or actuator failures.\nExperience with frequency-domain system identification using CIFER or similar tools.\nExperience with hardware-in-the-loop testing and supporting flight test campaigns.\nInterest in aviation, RC aircraft, or drones.\nAttributes aligned with Core Values\nSafety Above All: Demonstrates a proactive safety mindset by embedding safety into daily work, identifying and mitigating risks, encouraging open dialogue about safety concerns, and continuously improving practices and protocols.\nCustomer Focus: Puts customers at the center of every action by understanding their challenges, delivering meaningful value, and supporting their success.\nWork Better Together: Seeks and values diverse perspectives, builds cross-functional relationships, and fosters trust through empathetic, fact-based communication and commitment to shared decisions.\nBe the Pilot: Drives results with clarity and purpose by focusing on what matters most, adapting to change, taking initiative, and owning outcomes.\nEmbrace the Unknown: Navigates ambiguity with resilience and bold thinking, challenges the status quo, and combines innovative ideas with practical approaches to overcome obstacles and drive progress.\nRespect for People: Fosters a high-performance culture grounded in respect, professionalism, and support by balancing high expectations with a healthy, collaborative environment and being a trusted, dependable 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