Control & Simulation Engineer

Description

Regulus is an agile defense-tech startup tackling the most complex challenges in counter-drone and uncrewed defense. With hundreds of combat-proven systems deployed by the IDF and global partners, we are now engineering the next generation of C-UxS (Counter-Uncrewed Systems). We leverage advanced electronic warfare and kinetic measures to detect and neutralize hostile threats. If you want to push technological boundaries while safeguarding Israel and our allies, join us at this pivotal stage of our growth.

This is a unique opportunity to join a company at a pivotal growth stage and help shape its products, culture, and future.

DART is an autonomous counter-drone system: a standalone system and a radar-cued ground station launch small interceptor drones that acquire an airborne target with a thermal seeker and defeat it by direct impact. The interceptor is built on a COTS high-agility racer platform, with Betaflight closing the inner rate loop and a mission computer running perception and outer-loop guidance.

You will own the two disciplines that determine whether the interceptor actually hits: guidance and control law design, and the simulation environment used to develop, validate, and regression-test those laws before anything flies. This is a hands-on leadership role - you are expected to write and tune code, sit in front of flight logs, and stand in the field on test days, while also setting technical direction for a small team.

Key Responsibilities

• Own outer-loop guidance (image-based thermal aim, pursuit/proportional-navigation, latency-compensated LOS, and throttle management) and manage end-to-end latency and stability budgets.
• Implement and tune controllers (from PID/PI to adaptive/MPC), define flight controller interfaces (MSP/CRSF/SBUS injection), and govern the flight-mode state machine, failsafes, and safety envelope.
• Deliver the 6-DOF simulation product (interceptor/target dynamics, thermal seeker), maintain SIL/HIL rigs for unmodified production code, validate models against flight data, and run automated regression suites and KPIs.
• Lead and mentor the control and simulation team, set test-progression gates (sim to full-envelope flight), collaborate closely with Vision and Systems Engineering, and produce all required technical artifacts.

Requirements

• B.Sc. in Aerospace, Electrical, Mechanical Engineering, or Applied Math/Physics.
• 5+ years designing and flight-proving guidance, navigation, or control systems on real hardware - not simulation-only experience.
• Strong practical control theory: state-space and classical design, stability margins, discrete-time implementation, cascaded loop architecture, and the failure modes of each.
• Demonstrated experience with state estimation (Kalman/EKF) and sensor fusion.
• Strong Python; C/C++ for real-time or embedded targets.
• Hands-on experience building or heavily extending a physics-based simulation (PyBullet, Gazebo, MuJoCo, Simulink, or in-house) and validating it against measured data.
• Multirotor experience: flight dynamics, PX4/ArduPilot/Betaflight, tuning, and reading flight logs to diagnose control problems.
• Comfortable owning safety-critical decisions on a fast, dangerous airframe, and saying "not yet" when the data doesn't support the next test.