Principal GNC Engineer
Location: Playa Vista, California (in-person, five days per week)
The return lane isn’t going to build itself. Come build it with us.
Outpost is an orbital logistics company rewriting the rules of global logistics by building reusable Earth-return vehicles that unlock in-space manufacturing, on-orbit warehousing, and 60-minute global delivery through space.
Our CarryAll vehicle family returns payloads ranging from 200 kilograms to 10 metric tons, lands within 10 meters of its target, and can then be refurbished and launched again. One vehicle, many missions: responsive logistics and precision delivery for national security; commercial cargo moved with real cadence; R&D payloads flown, tested, and refined across repeatable cycles; and critical aid delivered where roads and runways can’t reach.
The demand is already here, validated through defense and civil agreements and supported by a growing pipeline of government and commercial customers.
We have the customers, the team, and a clear technical path ahead of us. We’re building the return lane. Come build it with us
The Role
Outpost is building vehicles that bring things back from space. Getting mass from orbit to a precise point on the ground is a GNC problem end to end: a deorbit burn that has to hit an entry corridor, a hypersonic entry that has to bleed energy inside structural and thermal limits, and a guided descent that has to land on a target, repeatably, and cheaply enough to do it often.
We're hiring a Principal GNC Engineer to own that chain. This is not a role where you hand algorithms over a wall. You'll design the guidance and estimation architecture, write the flight code, put it on hardware, sit through the HIL runs, go out to the drop tests and flight campaigns, and come back with data that changes the design. If you want to see your controller fly within months rather than years, this is that job.
Basic Qualifications:
- Bachelor’s degree in a related technical discipline with 5+ years as a GNC or Controls professional or Advanced degree with 3+ years as a GNC or Controls professional
- Software development experience in C++ and Python.
- Experience in software tools such as Git, Jira, and CI Pipeline
- Algorithms on real hardware (e.g. Extended Kalman Filters, LQR)
- Strong understanding of classical dynamics, modeling and simulation, classical and modern control.
- Ability to work in a fast paced, autonomously driven atmosphere.
- Passion for space and the application of advanced estimation and control techniques in this domain
Additional Qualifications:
- Experience with implementing optimal control for burn planning
- Experience with satellite maneuvering and thruster systems
- Demonstrated project or professional experience in satellite attitude determination and control
- Experience in end-to-end development of three axis stabilized spacecraft incorporating momentum, magnetic, and/or propulsive control.
- Experience with flexible body control, orbital maneuvering, filtering, fault management, software development, and navigation filtering.
Responsibilities:
- Modeling, design, analysis, implementation and test of satellite attitude determination and control (ADCS) algorithms.
- Hardware performance specification including reaction wheel and torque rod sizing, sensor noise and performance, characteristics, redundancy and fault management.
- Define and own ADCS requirements definition with electrical and mechanical engineers
- Implement closed loop pointing, orbit raising, and station keeping algorithms for flight.
- Analyze platform stability to ensure low jitter of line-of-sight instruments.
- Develop high fidelity 6 degree of freedom satellite simulations using Python, Matlab or C++.
- Develop entry guidance, entry corridor and reachability analysis, deorbit burn targeting, aerothermal and load-constrained trajectory shaping.
- Develop EKF and UKF with GNSS, IMU, air data, radar or laser altimetry, magnetometers, and optical or terrain-relative sensors; sensor error modeling and calibration; GNSS-denied or degraded navigation, including through plasma blackout.
- Implement control of aerodynamically unstable or marginally stable vehicles, gain scheduling and robust control across wide Mach and dynamic pressure ranges, actuator and effector allocation, autonomous mode sequencing and abort logic.
- Support flight test campaigns at test sites — test planning, instrumentation requirements, real-time support, and flight data reconstruction.
Compensation & Benefits:
- Salary: Principal: $190,000– $225,00, based on experience
- Additional Compensation: Annual performance-based bonuses that reward your impact.
- Shared upside: Meaningful equity in Outpost so you share directly in the value you help create.
- Comprehensive healthcare: Medical, dental, and vision coverage to keep you and your loved ones covered. We cover the base tier of medical insurance and all premiums of vision and dental.
- Protection when it matters: Company-provided short- and long-term disability coverage for peace of mind, plus life insurance for even more security.
- PTO: Recharge on your own terms with paid time off, plus 9 days of paid holidays.
- Invest in your future: 401(k) with company match to help you build long-term wealth.
- Fueled for the mission: Daily DoorDash lunch stipend, plus unlimited snacks, coffee, and tea to keep you energized.
- Mission that matters: Work shoulder-to-shoulder with leaders from aerospace, new space, and deep-tech industries building the future of orbital infrastructure.
- Pet Friendly Office: Bring your furry friend into the office so that they can be a part of our mission too.
- Monthly Company Happy Hours and Events: Drinks at the local bar, hibachi nights, mini golfing and more!
You must be a U.S. citizen or lawful permanent resident of the U.S., protected individual as defined by 22 C.F.R. § 120.15 , or eligible to obtain the required authorizations from the U.S. Department of State