Guidance, Navigation, and Control (GN&C) Engineer

Company Overview Fortastra designs and delivers resilient, high-performance spacecraft that safeguard critical orbital assets and ensure freedom of action in space. We integrate advanced autonomy, sensing, and control into systems engineered for reliability, speed, and scale. Our culture values simplicity, accountability, and disciplined execution — empowering every engineer to think systemically, act decisively, and build with purpose. Aggressive innovation. Disciplined execution. Strength among the stars. Team / Department You will join Fortastra’s Engineering Division, responsible for the design, development, and test of flight systems across our autonomous spacecraft portfolio. The Role Fortastra is seeking a Guidance, Navigation, and Control (GNC) Engineer to architect, implement, and validate flight-critical algorithms supporting autonomous rendezvous, proximity operations (RPO), formation flying, and precision maneuvering. The ideal candidate combines deep technical rigor in control theory, state estimation, and orbital mechanics with hands-on experience integrating algorithms into embedded flight software and hardware-in-the-loop (HIL) environments. Key Responsibilities

• Design, implement, and tune GNC algorithms for relative motion, formation flying, and autonomous RPO.
• Develop and validate attitude determination and control systems (ADCS) and orbit determination filters.
• Model and simulate orbital dynamics, spacecraft trajectories, and environmental disturbances.
• Perform state estimation and sensor fusion using IMUs, GPS, star trackers, LiDAR, and optical navigation sensors.
• Integrate GNC algorithms into embedded flight software (C/C++ and Python) and test in HIL and flight-like environments.
• Conduct Monte Carlo analysis and performance verification under uncertainty and failure scenarios.
• Collaborate with systems, avionics, and autonomy teams to deliver mission-ready architectures.

Qualifications & Skills

• B.S. or M.S. in Aerospace, Mechanical, or Electrical Engineering, or related discipline.
• 5+ years of experience in spacecraft, launch vehicle, or autonomous system GNC.
• Proficiency in MATLAB/Simulink, Python, and C/C++.
• Demonstrated experience with Kalman filtering, nonlinear control, and state estimation.
• Proven ability to transition algorithms from simulation to flight in operational environments.
• Work is on-site, remote or hybrid arrangements will not be considered
• U.S. Citizenship and ability to obtain or have an active TS/SCI clearance

Why Fortastra? Join a small, high-impact team developing the next generation of autonomous orbital control systems for national security space. At Fortastra, engineers own the full lifecycle — from concept through flight — shaping the future of trusted, resilient spacecraft autonomy. The pay range for this role is $190,000.00 - $230,000.00. Where an offer falls within that range depends on factors like your qualifications, experience, location, and interview performance, which we weigh against the market rate for the position.