GNC Systems Engineer - Spaceplane

Description

Our Mission: Fly to space twice in a day

Join the Systems & GNC team working on the Mk-II Spaceplane and help shape the future of flight. In this role, you will play a key part in developing and validating highly integrated tools that enable data-driven decision-making across the program and directly influence vehicle performance and safety.

This position sits at the intersection of guidance, navigation and control, systems engineering, and flight operations—offering a rare opportunity to work across disciplines and see your work transition from analysis and design through to flight test and operations. We are looking for engineers who take true ownership of their projects, drive them through the entire engineering life-cycle, and enjoy solving complex problems with a holistic perspective.

If you are motivated to work at the forefront of supersonic spaceplane development, with direct involvement in flight hardware, test campaigns, and flight data analysis, this role offers a unique opportunity to shape the program’s success.

Responsibilities

• Evaluating mission and vehicle design with Monte Carlo simulations. Feeding data directly back to each design team.
• Design, code and verify GNC algorithms in C++
• Develop and continuously improve the integrated mission analysis, simulation, and flight-test validation workflows.
• Build, refine, and validate high-fidelity vehicle models using analytical methods, ground testing, and flight-test data.
• Work with flight engineers to design and execute test points to validate and characterize vehicle models
• Setup, improve, and execute hardware-in-the-loop (HIL) simulations

Qualifications

• A BSc qualification in Aerospace, Electrical, Mechatronics or similar
• Good understanding of vehicle modelling and system identification techniques
• Good fundamental understanding of flight dynamics
• At least 1 year practical experience in control or state estimation design, implement or test in industry or personal projects.
• Proficient in programming languages such as Python or C++

Desired Experience

• Experience working with/in UAVs, aviation or rocketry
• Good understanding of state estimation techniques, including sensor error sources and modelling.

Diversity & Inclusion

At Dawn Aerospace, we believe that diverse teams build better solutions. We are committed to creating an inclusive environment where people of all backgrounds, identities, and experiences are valued and supported to do their best work.

About Dawn Aerospace

Dawn Aerospace is a space transportation company with a purpose.
Our mission is to enable the next generation of space users by providing more sustainable and scalable ways to access and move around in space. We believe this access, in the form of a transportation network, will fundamentally change what’s possible from space. We currently focus on three areas of space transportation:

• In-space propulsion
  We're a leading supplier of turnkey green propulsion systems for various classes of satellites. Our systems utilise safe, accessible propellants and we have over 170 of these propulsion units on more than 40 operational satellites already. A further 200 units are in production.
• In-space servicing
  Coupled with our propulsion expertise, we are ensuring that our customers' satellites are refuellable. In the coming years, Dawn will offer a refueling service to enable life extension of customer satellites. This new market is aligned with our sustainability goal to ensue a clean and safe space for everyone! 
• Spaceplane
  We are developing the fastest and highest-flying aircraft ever to take off from a runway, combining the extreme performance of rocket propulsion with the reusability of conventional airplanes to enable high-frequency, low-cost access to sub-orbital space.

Our international teams are distributed across four locations: the Netherlands, France, New Zealand, and the USA.

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Important!

If you think you have what it takes but are unsure that you check every box, we still want to hear from you.

To all recruitment agencies: Dawn Aerospace does not accept agency resumes. Please do not forward resumes to our job’s alias, our employees, or any other company location. Dawn Aerospace will not be responsible for any fees related to unsolicited resumes.