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Xona Space Systems is seeking a GNC (Guidance, Navigation, and Control) Engineer specializing in advanced modeling to develop high-fidelity simulation and analysis capabilities for aerospace vehicle systems. You will be responsible for building and maintaining nonlinear six-degree-of-freedom digital twins of spacecraft, developing flexible-body and structural-dynamics models, and validating these models against analytical, test, and flight data.
Key responsibilities include:
- Developing and validating high-fidelity nonlinear 6-DOF digital twin simulations of the spacecraft bus for design, analysis, and verification
- Creating flexible-body and structural-dynamics models for integration into vehicle simulations
- Building physics-based models of vehicle dynamics, sensors, actuators, environmental disturbances, and subsystems
- Applying system identification techniques to estimate parameters and improve model fidelity
- Deriving linear approximate models from nonlinear systems using numerical and analytical methods
- Developing simulation capabilities for control design, Monte Carlo analysis, software-in-the-loop, and hardware-in-the-loop testing
- Contributing to model-based software development, verification, documentation, and technical reviews
- Collaborating with GNC, structural, and test engineers throughout the development lifecycle
Required qualifications include extensive experience developing nonlinear 6-DOF simulation platforms for aerospace vehicles, modeling and validating aerospace vehicle dynamics and subsystems, developing or integrating flexible-body models, strong understanding of rigid-body dynamics and control systems, expertise in system identification, and proficiency in MATLAB, C++, Git, and Linux environments.
Desired qualifications include a Master's or Ph.D. in aerospace engineering, controls, robotics, or applied mathematics; experience with MATLAB/Simulink and automatic code generation; experience with modal analysis and flexible-mode identification; experience with SIL/HIL test environments; and familiarity with Monte Carlo analysis and continuous integration workflows.
This is a U.S. role requiring U.S. citizenship, lawful permanent residency, or protected status per export regulations.
