Principal or Senior Principal Engineer, Guidance Navigation Control- Terminal Flight Phase

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.

Northrop Grumman Aeronautics Systems is looking for a Principal or Senior Principal Engineer Guidance Navigation Controls to support the Vehicle Engineering organization in Redondo Beach, CA.

The selected candidate will support research and development of flight control algorithms for manned and unmanned air vehicles. This is a dynamic and fun organization involved in deploying forward-leaning avionics, guidance, navigation, and control systems for developmental concepts for air vehicles, weapons, and many more platforms.

Responsibilities:

• 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 to meet air vehicle performance, flying qualities and stability margin requirements, both on ground and in flight. 
• Design terminal flight phase (i.e. takeoff and landing) control laws, and associated logic and autonomy functions. 
• Develop air vehicle system linear and non-linear dynamic simulation models and integrate models into software and hardware-in-the-loop simulation environments. 
• Perform performance and flying qualities analysis. 
• Support non-linear simulation and hardware-in-the-loop lab testing.
• Support flight test activities and analyze air vehicle flight test data.

 

The selected candidate should thrive in a fast-paced work environment with high expectations, significantly diverse assignments, collaborative/team settings across all levels.

***This requisition may be filled at either a Principal Engineer Guidance Navigation Controls level or Senior Principal Engineer Guidance Navigation Controls Engineer level ***

Basic Qualifications for Principal Engineer Guidance and Navigation Controls:

• Bachelor's degree in a Science, Technology, Engineering or Mathematics (STEM) discipline from an accredited university with a minimum of 5 years of experience OR Master’s degree in a STEM discipline from an accredited university with a minimum of 3 years of experience OR PhD in a STEM discipline from an accredited university with a minimum of 0 years of experience.
• Excellent communication, analysis, and problem-solving skills.
• Active / in-scope DoD [Secret] Clearance
• 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 terminal flight phase performance and flying qualities requirements.
• Experience using MATLAB to create, process, analyze, and visually represent data.
• Experience using Simulink to model dynamic systems.

Basic Qualifications for Sr Principal Engineer Guidance and Navigation Controls:

• Bachelor's degree in a Science, Technology, Engineering or Mathematics (STEM) discipline from an accredited university with a minimum of 9 years of experience OR Master’s degree in a STEM discipline from an accredited university with a minimum of 7 years of experience OR PhD in a STEM discipline from an accredited university with a minimum of 4 years of experience.
• Excellent communication, analysis, and problem-solving skills.
• Active / in-scope DoD [Secret] Clearance
• 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 terminal flight phase performance and flying qualities requirements.
• Experience using MATLAB to create, process, analyze, and visually represent data.
• Experience using Simulink to model dynamic systems.

Preferred Qualifications:

• Experience designing control laws for terminal flight phase operations.
• Familiar with logic, modes, and states for autonomous aircraft.
• Working knowledge of MIL-STD-1797 flying qualities requirements.
• C/C++ programming skills
• Python programming skills

Salary Range: $104,600 USD - $157,000 USD

Salary Range 2: $129,700 USD - $194,500 USD

Employees may be eligible for a discretionary bonus in addition to base pay. Annual bonuses are designed to reward individual contributions as well as allow employees to share in company results. Employees in Vice President or Director positions may be eligible for Long Term Incentives. In addition, Northrop Grumman provides a variety of benefits including health insurance coverage, life and disability insurance, savings plan, Company paid holidays and paid time off (PTO) for vacation and/or personal business.

The health and safety of our employees and their families is a top priority. The company encourages employees to remain up-to-date on their COVID-19 vaccinations. U.S. Northrop Grumman employees may be required, in the future, to be vaccinated or have an approved disability/medical or religious accommodation, pursuant to future court decisions and/or government action on the currently stayed federal contractor vaccine mandate under Executive Order 14042 https://www.saferfederalworkforce.gov/contractors/.

Northrop Grumman is committed to hiring and retaining a diverse workforce. We are proud to be an Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action Employer, making decisions without regard to race, color, religion, creed, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, marital status, national origin, age, veteran status, disability, or any other protected class. For our complete EEO/AA and Pay Transparency statement, please visit http://www.northropgrumman.com/EEO. U.S. Citizenship is required for most positions.