{"id":1059341,"url":"https://alion.io/job/pivotal-senior-systems-engineer-gnc-flight-controls","title":"Senior Systems Engineer – GNC & Flight Controls","company":{"id":34043,"name":"Pivotal","domain":"pivotal-research.org","url":"https://alion.io/company/pivotal","size_band":"51-200","is_staffing_agency":false,"employer_type":"direct","is_intermediary":false,"listed_via":null,"ats_vendor":"Lever","truth_index":{"grade":"A","score":86,"open_postings":21,"ghost_share":0.238,"stale_share":0,"repost_share":0,"time_to_fill_p50_days":38,"computed_at":"2026-09-25T05:45:01Z"}},"role":"Industrial Engineering","role_family":"Industrial Engineering","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":["Palo Alto, United States"],"countries":["US"],"hiring_countries":[],"hiring_countries_total":0,"salary":{"min":150000,"max":180000,"currency":"USD","period":"year","gross":null,"usd_annual":180000},"salary_estimate":null,"experience_years_min":5,"visa_sponsorship":false,"relocation_package":false,"has_equity":false,"technologies":[{"name":"C++","optional":false},{"name":"Git","optional":false},{"name":"MATLAB","optional":false},{"name":"Python","optional":false},{"name":"Simulink","optional":false},{"name":"CI/CD","optional":true},{"name":"GitLab","optional":true},{"name":"Jira","optional":true}],"status":"live","first_seen_at":"2026-09-18T18:16:58Z","employer_posted_date":"2026-09-18","last_verified_at":"2026-09-26T03:36:54Z","board_verified":true,"closed_at":null,"days_open":7,"trust":{"level":"ok","repost_count":0,"flags":["company_stale"],"days_open":6},"description":"About the Job\nPivotal is the leader in the emerging market of electric Vertical Takeoff and Landing (eVTOL) aircraft. We design, develop, and manufacture light eVTOL aircraft for personal, public service, and defense applications.\nPivotal is seeking a Systems Engineer - GNC & Flight Controls to support requirements development, system integration, and Verification & Validation (V&V) of our aircraft guidance, navigation, control, and flight-control systems.\nThis is a Systems Engineering role focused on translating aircraft-level needs into clear, testable system and subsystem requirements and ensuring those requirements are verified through analysis, simulation, bench testing, SIL/HIL, ground test, and flight test.\nThe successful candidate will have strong Systems Engineering fundamentals along with enough technical depth in GNC, controls, embedded software, or autonomous vehicles to work directly with the engineers designing and implementing these systems. This is not primarily a modeling or simulation-development position; the focus is requirements quality, interfaces, traceability, verification, and system-level technical closure.\nResponsibilities\nDevelop, decompose, allocate, and maintain aircraft and subsystem requirements for Guidance, Navigation & Control (GNC), flight controls, estimation, sensing, and related embedded software functions.\nOwn requirements and verification artifacts in Jama, including traceability, relationships, baselines, change management, verification methods, and objective evidence.\nTranslate aircraft-level behavior and safety needs into clear, measurable, testable requirements for GNC, embedded software, sensors, actuators, and supporting hardware.\nWork directly with GNC and software engineers to ensure requirements accurately capture intended control-law behavior, operating envelopes, modes, transitions, fault responses, degraded operation, and system interfaces.\nDevelop and maintain Verification & Validation plans, verification matrices, test requirements, procedures, and reports.\nDefine appropriate verification methods including analysis, inspection, simulation, Software-in-the-Loop (SIL), Hardware-in-the-Loop (HIL), bench testing, ground testing, UAV flight testing, and crewed flight testing.\nReview verification results and objective evidence and drive requirements to formal verification closure.\nMaintain bidirectional traceability from stakeholder and aircraft-level requirements through subsystem/software requirements, implementation, verification activities, and test evidence.\nSupport definition and management of interfaces between GNC, flight-control software, sensors, actuators, flight computers, electrical systems, aircraft dynamics, and other subsystems.\nPartner with GNC engineers to review MATLAB/Simulink models, control architectures, state machines, mode logic, and simulation results from a Systems Engineering and requirements perspective.\nReview software implementation and development artifacts sufficiently to confirm requirements intent and traceability, including working with Git-based repositories and C/C++ and Python code.\nParticipate in requirements and design reviews including SRR, CoDR, PDR, CDR, TRR, and aircraft or flight-readiness reviews.\nSupport system-level integration, aircraft bring-up, anomaly investigation, requirements clarification, and root-cause activities.\nIdentify gaps, inconsistencies, unverified assumptions, and ambiguous requirements before they become integration or flight-test issues.\nWork cross-functionally with GNC, embedded software, electrical, aeromechanical, autonomy, flight test, safety, and program teams to resolve multidisciplinary technical issues.\nContribute to practical Systems Engineering processes that provide appropriate rigor and traceability without creating unnecessary development overhead.\nQualifications\nBachelor’s degree or higher in Aerospace Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Computer Engineering, Systems Engineering, Robotics, or a related technical discipline.\n5+ years of experience developing complex aerospace, automotive, robotics, autonomous, or other safety-critical electromechanical systems.\nStrong experience with requirements engineering, including requirements definition, decomposition, allocation, traceability, interface definition, change management, and verification closure.\nDemonstrated experience developing and executing Verification & Validation activities for complex hardware/software systems.\nExperience using Jama or a comparable requirements-management environment such as DOORS, Polarion, or Codebeamer; Jama experience strongly preferred.\nTechnical experience with Guidance, Navigation & Control, flight controls, controls engineering, vehicle dynamics, state estimation, autonomous systems, or closely related systems.\nWorking knowledge of MATLAB and Simulink, including the ability to understand control models, signal flows, state machines, simulation results, and model-to-requirement relationships.\nAbility to read and understand embedded software sufficiently to work effectively with implementation teams, including familiarity with C/C++, Python, Git, and software development workflows.\nExperience defining verification methods and evaluating objective evidence from SIL, HIL, simulation, bench, vehicle, or flight testing.\nStrong analytical skills and the ability to translate complex system behavior into clear, testable engineering requirements.\nStrong written and verbal communication skills with demonstrated ability to work across hardware, software, controls, and test organizations.\nPreferred Qualifications\nAerospace experience involving flight-control systems, GNC, avionics, autonomous aircraft, UAVs, spacecraft, or other flight-critical systems.\nExperience with DO-178C software development and verification processes.\nFamiliarity with DO-331 model-based development and verification using MATLAB/Simulink.\nFamiliarity with ARP4754A/ARP4754B, ARP4761, system safety assessments, functional hazard analysis, or other structured aerospace development processes.\nExperience with ISO 26262 functional safety for automotive systems.\nFamiliarity with ISO 21448 / SOTIF, Automotive SPICE, UL 4600, or other autonomous-vehicle and safety-critical development frameworks.\nExperience defining and verifying failure behavior, degraded modes, redundancy, monitoring, fault detection, and fault response.\nExperience with requirements-based testing of control laws, estimators, navigation systems, sensors, actuator-control systems, or autonomous vehicle functions.\nExperience with SIL/HIL environments, automated regression testing, test scripting, data analysis, and requirements-driven test coverage.\nFamiliarity with configuration management, software baselines, release processes, CI/CD, Jira, and GitLab.\nExperience supporting ground or flight-test programs and investigating discrepancies between predicted and actual vehicle behavior.\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 teammate.","description_format":"text","description_chars":8160,"description_truncated":false,"requirements":{"experience_years_min":5,"management_years_min":null,"team_size_min":null,"manages_managers":false,"education":{"level":"bachelor","optional":false},"security_clearance":false,"languages":[]},"benefits":[],"hiring_locations":[],"hiring_excludes":[],"relocation_offered":false,"industries":["Biotechnology"],"lifecycle":[{"event":"open","at":"2026-09-19T05:55:27Z"}],"liveness":{"score":90,"band":"hot","label":"Hiring now","p_open":1,"p_active":0.903,"p_room":1,"age_days":6,"expected_fill_days":38,"reasons":["conf:0","velocity","win:early"],"computed_at":"2026-09-25T05:45:01Z"},"pay":{"stated_usd_annual":180000,"is_top_pay":true},"html_url":"https://alion.io/job/pivotal-senior-systems-engineer-gnc-flight-controls","json_url":"https://alion.io/job/pivotal-senior-systems-engineer-gnc-flight-controls.json","meta":{"generated_at":"2026-09-26T03:42:11Z","cache_seconds":300,"methodology":"https://alion.io/methodology","terms":"https://alion.io/terms","contact":"https://alion.io/contact","api":"https://alion.io/developers","usage":{"tier":"crawler","counted_by":"address","units_charged":1,"used_today":3955,"day_limit":5000,"remaining_today":1045,"minute_limit":60,"resets_at":"2026-09-27T00:00:00Z"}}}