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Impulse is seeking a Senior Pointing, Acquisition, & Tracking Controls Engineer to lead the development of the pointing and tracking subsystem for a free-space optical (FSO) laser communication terminal. This is a hands-on technical role that blends optics, sensors, and control theory, requiring close collaboration with optical, photonics, and modem teams to ensure integrated system design.
Key responsibilities include:
• Own the end-to-end pointing, acquisition, and tracking (PAT) architecture for the FSO system, achieving sub-microradian pointing stability. Develop pointing budgets that account for spacecraft attitude dynamics, thermal drift, and atmospheric disturbances, and allocate error budgets to subsystems.
• Design and implement algorithms for rapid transmitter acquisition and lock maintenance.
• Develop control loops for fast steering mirrors (FSM) or precision actuators to actively suppress jitter and beam wander. Tune controllers to mitigate disturbances and minimize pointing error.
• Build and validate a hardware-in-the-loop (HIL) testbed to verify PAT performance, including simulations and real-world testing.
• Rapidly prototype algorithms and simulations to flesh out design concepts.
• Support troubleshooting and iteration during optical alignment sessions and system tests.
Required qualifications:
• Bachelor's or Master's degree in Aerospace Engineering, Controls/Electrical Engineering, Applied Physics, or related field.
• 5+ years of experience with pointing, tracking, or guidance/control systems (satellite attitude control, gimbal systems, optical tracking systems).
• Strong foundation in control theory and signal processing; experience designing and tuning feedback control loops for high-precision systems.
• Knowledge of sensor fusion and state estimation.
• Understanding of optical pointing mechanisms, pointing errors, and jitter spectra.
• Experience with gimbals, fast steering mirrors, precision opto-mechanical actuators, or similar hardware.
• Proficiency in programming for algorithm development and real-time implementation.
• Demonstrated ability to troubleshoot complex hardware/software systems in lab or field environments.
This is an on-site role in Redondo Beach, CA.
