Principal GNC Engineer
Confirmed on the employer's own hiring board on Nov 3, 2026. First seen by Alion on Sep 2, 2026. Reflect Orbital scores B on the Alion truth index.
At Reflect, you will be expected to move fast, have a lot of ownership and, most importantly, be able to effect change. If this excites you, we are interested in hearing about your best work and accomplishments across any domain and from any points in your life.
About the Role
As a Principal GNC Engineer you will directly shape the in-orbit performance of a novel space vehicle. Your work will span vehicle-level dynamics and control, orbit propagation, flight software and HITL testing on our avionics. We're looking for someone who brings "full-stack" GNC development capability to the table.
Responsibilities
Come up with creative solutions to the unique problems that come with precisely putting a spot of reflected sunlight on the ground from space.
Design, develop and test our closed-loop guidance, navigation and control for both attitude and orbit.
Plan trajectories and attitude motion profiles that satisfy our spot serving constraints.
Develop and own our 6-DOF simulation of vehicle attitude and orbital dynamics, and use it to characterize vehicle performance through Monte Carlo analysis.
Write GNC algorithms in flight software (C++/Rust) and validate them using our avionics in the loop.
Drive sensor and actuator selection with our avionics engineers so attitude determination and control are reliable in flight.
Analyze and plan orbits and constellation design to maximize our overall spot serving capability.
Ideal Qualifications
10+ years of professional GNC engineering experience, ideally on spacecraft or other dynamically controlled vehicles.
Clear technical ownership of a GNC subsystem that has flown, covering the simulation, the algorithms and the flight software.
Strong background in modeling physical systems from first principles, including flexible body dynamics, sensors, actuators and the space environment.
Expertise in state estimation design for attitude and orbit determination, validated in flight.
Ability to verify and validate GNC flight software in an integrated environment, using HITL testing.
Experience in guidance, maneuver and constellation design, including orbit selection, coverage and station-keeping.
Experience in real-time spacecraft operations support, from commissioning through console operations to on-orbit anomaly resolution.
Fluency in Python, C++ and/or Rust.
Even if you don’t meet 100% of the above qualifications, we are likely still interested in hearing from you. Hiring exceptional individuals is our #1 priority, and we believe that exceptional people often have highly unusual backgrounds.
We are also interested in carving out unique roles for unconventional people that we are excited about working with.
Benefits
Reflect Orbital’s success will hinge on our team, which is why our compensation and benefits plan is designed to reward our employees and support their families as generously as we’re able.
Broad choice of medical/dental/vision coverage, Reflect covers 100% of each base-policy
Access to HSA, FSA, and 401K
Unlimited paid time off
Healthy lunches provided daily
Equal Opportunity
Reflect Orbital is an Equal Opportunity Employer; employment with Reflect Orbital 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.
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