Staff GNC Engineer

Archer is an aerospace company based in San Jose, California building an all-electric vertical takeoff and landing aircraft with a mission to advance the benefits of sustainable air mobility. We are designing, manufacturing, and operating an all-electric aircraft that can carry four passengers while producing minimal noise.

Our sights are set high and our problems are hard, and we believe that diversity in the workplace is what makes us smarter, drives better insights, and will ultimately lift us all to success. We are dedicated to cultivating an equitable and inclusive environment that embraces our differences, and supports and celebrates all of our team members.

What you’ll do:

Lead teams to design and implement flight control algorithms for electric VTOL aircraft

Work cross functionally to connect GNC requirements with other system requirements

Influence leadership with decisions that are affected by GNC systems.

Implement creative solutions to efficiently verify complex systems and software

Build simulations to verify and validate system requirements

Run trade studies to inform aircraft design and system architecture

Work with the Flight Test team to design tests that safely evaluate the vehicle capabilities

Improve the fidelity and capabilities of our vehicle and environment simulation models

Analyze full-scale and subscale flight data to improve our models

Author software requirements and test cases that drive the design of the GNC software

Collaborate with Systems Engineering to properly decompose higher level requirements

Collaborate with Systems Safety and Systems Engineering to identify and correct any deficiencies in the Flight Control System.

What you need:

Strong knowledge of vehicle dynamics, optimization, and both classical and modern control theory

BS in Aerospace Engineering, Electrical/Computer Engineering, or a related field with at least 10 years of relevant experience OR MS with at least 8 years of relevant experience OR PhD with at least 6 years of relevant experience

Proficiency in MATLAB/Simulink

Bonus Qualifications:

Experience verifying GNC systems in simulation and on hardware

Experience with envelope protection

Experience with modeling physics, sensors, and actuators

Experience applying system identification techniques to aircraft or rotorcraft

Knowledge of fault detection and isolation techniques

Experience implementing trajectory generation and/or optimization algorithms

Experience flight testing piloted and/or autonomous aircraft or rotorcraft

Piloting experience (aircraft or rotorcraft)

Archer is committed to working with and providing reasonable accommodations to job applicants with physical or mental disabilities, and those with sincerely held religious beliefs. Applicants who may require reasonable accommodation for any part of the application or hiring process should provide their name and contact information to Archer’s People Team at people@archer.com. Reasonable accommodations will be determined on a case-by-case basis.

Information collected and processed as part of any job applications you choose to submit is subject to Archer's Candidate Privacy Policy.

Archer is unable to provide work visa sponsorship for this position at the present time.

Archer Aviation does not engage with external recruiting agencies/individual recruiters with whom it does not have a prior written agreement. Archer reserves the right to make use of any unsolicited resumes that it receives and bears no responsibility for payment of any fees asserted from the use of unsolicited resumes. If you are a recruiting agency or individual recruiter wishing to do business with Archer, please reach out to People@archer.com. All employment processes are managed by the Archer People Team.