Guidance, Navigation, & Control Engineer
US$190,000 – US$260,000 / yr base salary
Posted 4 Jun 2026
Advertised as “Guidance, Navigation, and Control (GN&C) Engineer”
BranchFactor Summary
The original posting with the fluff stripped out
- Expected experience
- 5+ yrs
- Management level
- Individual contributor
- Employment
- On-Site
| Base salary | US$190,000 – US$260,000 / yr |
|---|
Field of studyAerospace Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering (or related)
Study levelBachelor's or higher
Company Overview
Fortastra designs and delivers resilient, high-performance spacecraft that safeguard critical orbital assets and ensure freedom of action in space. We integrate advanced autonomy, sensing, and control into systems engineered for reliability, speed, and scale. Our culture values simplicity, accountability, and disciplined execution — empowering every engineer to think systemically, act decisively, and build with purpose. Aggressive innovation. Disciplined execution. Strength among the stars.
We recently closed a $30M Series A to build the future of on-orbit security and we’re just getting started!
Our Engineering Team
You will join Fortastra’s Engineering Division, responsible for the design, development, and test of flight systems across our autonomous spacecraft portfolio.
The Role
Fortastra is seeking a Guidance, Navigation, and Control (GNC) Engineer to architect, implement, and validate flight-critical algorithms supporting autonomous rendezvous, proximity operations (RPO), formation flying, and precision maneuvering. The ideal candidate combines deep technical rigor in control theory, state estimation, and orbital mechanics with hands-on experience integrating algorithms into embedded flight software and hardware-in-the-loop (HIL) environments.
Key Responsibilities
- Design, implement, and tune GNC algorithms for relative motion, formation flying, and autonomous RPO.
- Develop and validate attitude determination and control systems (ADCS) and orbit determination filters.
- Model and simulate orbital dynamics, spacecraft trajectories, and environmental disturbances.
- Perform state estimation and sensor fusion using IMUs, GPS, star trackers, LiDAR, and optical navigation sensors.
- Integrate GNC algorithms into embedded flight software (C/C++ and Python) and test in HIL and flight-like environments.
- Conduct Monte Carlo analysis and performance verification under uncertainty and failure scenarios.
- Collaborate with systems, avionics, and autonomy teams to deliver mission-ready architectures.
Qualifications & Skills
- B.S. or M.S. in Aerospace, Mechanical, or Electrical Engineering, or related discipline.
- 5+ years of experience in spacecraft, launch vehicle, or autonomous system GNC.
- Proficiency in MATLAB/Simulink, Python, and C/C++.
- Demonstrated experience with Kalman filtering, nonlinear control, and state estimation.