Posted July 01, 2026
Principal GNC Engineer - Autonomy Algorithm Developer - R10238418
RELOCATION ASSISTANCE: Relocation assistance may be availableCLEARANCE REQUIRED FOR START: NoCLEARANCE TYPE: SecretTRAVEL: Yes, 25% of the Time
Description
At Northrop Grumman, our employees have incredible opportunities to work on revolutionary systems that impact people's lives around the world today, and for generations to come. Our pioneering and inventive spirit has enabled us to be at the forefront of many technological advancements in our nation's history - from the first flight across the Atlantic Ocean, to stealth bombers, to landing on the moon. We look for people who have bold new ideas, courage and a pioneering spirit to join forces to invent the future, and have fun along the way. Our culture thrives on intellectual curiosity, cognitive diversity and bringing your whole self to work — and we have an insatiable drive to do what others think is impossible. Our employees are not only part of history, they're making history.Grumman Aeronautics Systems has an opening for a Principal GNC Engineer - Autonomy Algorithm Developer to join our team of qualified individuals within our South Bay Vehicle Engineering organization. This position is located at El Segundo, CA.
The selected candidate should thrive in a fast-paced work environment with high expectations and collaborative/team settings across all levels. This is a dynamic organization involved in deploying forward-leaning avionics, guidance, navigation, and control systems for developmental concepts for air vehicles, weapons, and many more platforms.
Primary Duties and Responsibilities:
- Support research and development of flight control algorithms for manned and unmanned air vehicles.
- Design, develop, implement, verify, and test algorithms, software, and simulation tools to perform guidance, navigation and control (GNC) of autonomous unmanned aircraft.
- Develop control laws both on ground and in flight.
- Design outer and inner loop control laws, and associated logic and autonomy functions, with a focus on outer loop.
- Develop air vehicle system linear and non-linear dynamic simulation models and integrate models into software and hardware-in-the-loop simulation environments.
- Support non-linear simulation and hardware-in-the-loop lab testing.
- Support flight test activities and analyze air vehicle flight test data.
- Develop analysis to support design reviews at different stages in a development program, such as PDR, CDR, etc.
Basic Qualifications:
- Bachelor's degree in a relevant Science, Technology, Engineering or Mathematics (STEM) discipline with 5 years of related experience; OR Master’s degree in a relevant STEM discipline with 3 years of related experience; OR a PhD in a relevant STEM discipline with 1 year of related experience.
- Working knowledge of fixed-wing aircraft flight dynamics.
- Experience using linear control principles and tools to design feedback control systems.
- Experience analyzing non-linear simulations of aircraft closed-loop dynamics.
- Working knowledge of autopilot functions.
- Working knowledge of outer loop control law performance requirements.
- Experience using MATLAB to create, process, analyze, and visually represent data.
- Experience using Simulink to model dynamic systems.
- Must have the ability to obtain and maintain a US Government Secret clearance and Special Access Program (SAP) within a reasonable amount of time as determined by business needs
Preferred Qualifications:
- Current active in-scope US Government Secret security clearance or higher, with the ability to obtain Special Program Access (SAP).
- Knowledgeable in flight sciences, outer loop control algorithms, optimal trajectory generation techniques (e.g. RRT, A-star) and air vehicle missions (e.g. shipboard operations, search)
- Familiarity with C/C++ programming.
- Familiarity with Python programming.
- Familiarity with Java programming.
- Experience with autonomy algorithms (Autonomous Taxi/ Take Off and Landing, etc.) for driving control laws.
- Familiarity with Simulink Stateflow Modeling
