# Senior GNC Engineer

**Company:** [Icarus](https://hotfix.jobs/companies/icarus)
**Location:** El Segundo, CA
**Role:** Embedded Engineering
**Salary:** $120k – $220k/yr
**Experience:** 2+ years
**Skills:** Gnc, State Estimation, Ekf, Ukf, Sensor Fusion, Inertial Navigation, Control Systems, Vehicle Dynamics, Simulation, Avionics
**Posted:** 2026-02-09

> Designs, implements, and flies guidance, navigation, and control systems for long-endurance stratospheric aircraft, owning the full GNC stack from modeling to flight testing. Requires 2+ years experience with real aircraft/UAV GNC systems and strong dynamics/controls fundamentals.

## Job Description

## Responsibilities
- Design, implement, and fly guidance, navigation, and control systems for long-endurance stratospheric aircraft
- Own the GNC stack end to end: modeling, simulation, control law design, estimation, tuning, validation, and flight test
- Develop and maintain vehicle dynamics models and simulation environments
- Design and tune controllers for launch, climb, station-keeping, loiter, descent, and recovery
- Integrate GNC tightly with avionics, sensors, propulsion, and autonomy software
- Debug and iterate rapidly using flight data, hardware-in-the-loop, and field testing
- Support integration, production bring-up, and flight operations in the desert

## Requirements
- 2+ years working on real GNC systems for aircraft, UAVs, spacecraft, or similarly complex dynamic systems
- Strong fundamentals in dynamics, controls, estimation, and linear systems
- Experience with state estimation (EKF/UKF), sensor fusion, and inertial navigation
- Experience designing and tuning control systems that fly on real vehicles
- Comfortable working from first principles and validating with test and flight data
- Ability to move fast, own outcomes, and troubleshoot in the field

## Compensation
- US salary range: $120,000 - $220,000 USD
- Highly competitive equity grants
- Top market salary and bonuses
- Health, dental, and vision insurance
- Daily lunch
- Dream desk setup

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