Seeking an engineer to work in the Guidance, Navigation, & Control (GNC) section at Wallops Flight Facility, Wallops Island, VA.  Wallops Island, VA is a remote location.   This position will require an individual to be able to work individually and work in a team environment.  Applicant will be the Attitude Control System or GNC engineer for sounding rocket missions.  The application will support system development throughout the entire mission life cycle including launch at remote sites.  Travel is required.  Typical travel to the remote launch site lasts 4 to 6 weeks.   This position will require an individual to be locally located to support efforts on base as well as be able to support required telework.  Applicant will work on a variety of projects, typically multiple at any one time.

This position requires the ability to understand and apply a broad range of technical disciplines germane GNC problems.  These areas include but are not limited to:  control systems design and analysis, attitude and navigation solutions, software (C and others, real-time applications), electrical H/W – digital and mixed-signal, mechanical systems, cold gas pneumatics, and various sensors including rate gyros, inertial measurement units, star trackers, accelerometers, and magnetometers.  The applicant will need to be able to understand and apply kinematic and dynamic analysis to the motion of sounding rocket payloads.  The successful candidate will be able to troubleshoot and maintain existing custom electronic system designs and software elements and well as develop new H/W and S/W systems to support sounding rocket missions.  The H/W includes microcontrollers, communications interfaces, analog inputs, DC-DC power supplies, etc.  S/W will include real-time systems written in C with significant H/W interaction and interrupt handlers; RTOS’s are not used.  Ground support equipment S/W uses a variety of programming languages including but not limited to:  C, C++, C#, and Python.  The applicant also must be able to adeptly communicate GNC concepts within the program and to the customer in written, oral, and presentation formats.  The Applicant will be working with high pressure pneumatics systems.  Additionally, this group has a significant manufacturing function that the applicant will support.  This includes but not limited to:  ordering raw material, performing fabrication, testing components, and planning build efforts.

This position supports NASA’s Sounding Rocket Operations Contract (NSROC) at the Wallops Flight Facility.  NSROC supports approximately 18 sounding rocket shots per year.  This program supports a range of scientific and government experiments.  Missions are flown from a variety of launch sites including but not limited to:  Wallops, White Sands Missile Range, Poker Flats Rocket Range, Alaska, Kwajalein, Andöya, Norway, and Svalbard.  Applicants are encouraged to read about the Sounding Rocket Program and familiarize themselves with the Wallops Island area prior to applying.

Description:

• Perform analyses of attitude control systems, attitude control problems, navigation issues, sensor performance and their contribution to system performance
• Applies comprehensive knowledge of engineering concepts, procedures and practices to GNC problems
• Participate in technical design/modification negotiations with customers
• Present system designs and analyses to customer and a variety of technical disciplines
• Performs system integration and testing of in-house and subcontractor-supplied ACS and BGS systems
• Analyze post-flight data and redesigns or modifies equipment to improve performance.
• Perform integration tests to validate assemblies
• Contribute to the development of new engineering products or specialty products and develop engineering specifications for applicable projects
• Design, development, manufacturing, refurbishment and evaluation of hardware relevant to ACS Sensors and Pneumatic Attitude Control Systems
• Develop the ability to support the design of software for attitude control systems and associated hardware and support equipment
• Work with data from various attitude sensors including particularly a roll gimbal mounted fiber optic gyro with on-board flight computer
• Coordinate the efforts of multiple engineers, technicians, and fabrication areas
• Test control systems which includes high-pressure hardware and electro-mechanical components relevant to the control payload attitude

Required Qualifications:

• Bachelor’s Degree (BA/BS) in Electrical Engineering, other Engineering or relevant technical degree with relevant electrical experience
• 5 years engineering experience
• Ability to understand and apply basic kinematics and dynamics
• Aptitude for digital logic and mixed signal design
• Demonstrated C or C# Programming capability
• MATLAB experience
• MS Office proficiency

Preferred Qualifications:

• MS or higher in related discipline (may reduce experience requirement).
• 8 or more years relevant experience
• Demonstrated control system capability
• Real-time system development
• GNC related experience