Flight Dynamics Engineer

Xona is the navigational intelligence company bringing real-time, centimeter-level certainty to any device, anywhere on Earth.

With Pulsar – the world’s most advanced PNT satellite infrastructure in Low Earth Orbit – Xona will offer a future-proof, backwards-compatible global positioning system optimized for absolute precision, superior power, and robust protection.

We are seeking a Sr. Flight Dynamics Engineer to support the design, deployment, and ongoing operations of a large LEO satellite constellation. This role owns constellation architecture, orbital analysis, maneuver planning, collision avoidance, and long-term orbital maintenance across the full mission lifecycle from early design through on-orbit operations.

What You’ll Do

• Design and analyze constellation architectures, including orbital regimes, plane spacing, phasing strategies, and deployment concepts

• Perform trade studies for orbit selection (altitude, inclination, RAAN distribution, phasing) to meet coverage, lifetime, and regulatory requirements

• Define station-keeping strategies and long-term orbit maintenance concepts for a large multi-satellite constellation

• Generate, validate, and maintain orbital state products, including TLEs and high-fidelity ephemerides

• Plan and optimize orbit insertion, phasing, station-keeping, and end-of-life disposal maneuvers while managing propellant usage and operational constraints

• Perform conjunction assessment and collision risk analysis; develop collision avoidance (COLA) maneuver plans

• Partner closely with mission operations, spacecraft systems, GNC, and software teams to ensure safe, efficient, and compliant orbital behavior across the constellation

Required Qualifications

• 4+ years of experience in the spacecraft or satellite industry supporting LEO or MEO constellation missions

• Strong foundation in orbital mechanics, astrodynamics, and flight dynamics analysis

• Proficiency with industry-standard tools such as STK, GMAT, FreeFlyer, or equivalent

• Experience with orbit determination and estimation tools (e.g., ODTK or similar)

• Solid understanding of orbital perturbations (J2, atmospheric drag, SRP, third-body effects) and their impact on long-term orbital behavior

• Experience analyzing spacecraft dynamics, control authority, and propulsion performance as they relate to trajectory design and constellation geometry