Staff Guidance, Navigation and Control (GNC) Engineer - Tactical Reconnaissance & Strike

ABOUT THE TEAM

Anduril’s Tactical Recon & Strike (TRS) is a division with two missions: 1) build highly capable autonomous drones, and 2) build solid rocket motors at scale. We transform products like Ghost, Anvil, Bolt, and Altius from early concepts into fully operational capabilities by partnering closely with specialist engineering, operations, and production teams. Through our Anduril Rocket Motor Systems (RMS) team, we design and manufacture solid rocket motors using advanced materials, proprietary formulations, and high-volume production methods—delivering safe, reliable propulsion systems that support a wide range of mission requirements. TRS hires software engineers & hardware engineers, who are excited to build across a diverse and powerful portfolio—from autonomous aerial systems to high-performance solid rocket motors. Our teams contribute to highly capable autonomous robotics systems and propulsion products that operate reliably in the most demanding mission environment.

The guidance, navigation, and control (GNC) team within TRS performs implementation, analysis, test, and validation for GNC software solutions supporting our autonomous drone fleet. Applications include attitude and position control, waypoint and terminal guidance engagements, and navigating contested environments including communication and GPS denied environments.

ABOUT THE JOB

This role will focus on delivering on guidance related projects and involve usage and direct implementation Guidance Navigation and Control work (GNC) and state-of-the-art Computer Vision (CV) at a Staff Levle. You will be involved at earliest stage product development, and help shape the capabilities set of the platform to achieve consistent mission success on a hyper-scalable platform developed on an aggressive timeline.

We are a fast-growing company at the early stages of our growth, and you will be expected to own important deliverables with tight deadlines during your time on the team, which will have a significant impact on the company’s trajectory. Anduril fosters a diverse, collaborative, culture with plenty of opportunities for ownership and professional growth.


This position will be on-site at our Costa Mesa, CA location. (relocation benefits provided.)

WHAT YOU’LL DO

• Develop guidance algorithms (terminal and midcourse) and state estimators for group 1-3 UAV platforms
• Work closely with the flight software and computer vision team to define requirements, develop GNC software and validate functionality in simulation on aggressive timelines
• Review test data captured from the flight control system, subsystems, and other test instrumentation to verify vehicle performance, evaluate GNC algorithm/controller behavior, or debug incidents during testing or from fielded assets
• Develop models required to support functional evaluation of GNC software

REQUIRED QUALIFICATIONS

• Bachelor’s degree in Robotics, Mechanical Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Aerospace Engineering, or a related field with a focus on dynamic systems and control
• 10+ years professional experience in a GNC role, preferably owning the design and architecture on missile or weapons systems
• Ability to own the development of tactical guidance algorithms and target state estimation while mentoring more junior level employees 
• Expert level knowledge of state estimation and filtering - Kalman filtering, sensor fusion, complementary filters, etc.
• Experience in designing and developing modeling and simulation of linear and nonlinear dynamic systems and model linearization from scratch
• Experience coding in Matlab and Simulink
• C/C++ Proficiency
• Eligible to obtain and maintain an active U.S. Secret security clearance

PREFERRED QUALIFICATIONS

• Master’s Degree or PhD in Robotics, Mechanical Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Aerospace Engineering, or a related field with a focus on dynamic systems and control
• 15+ years professional experience in a GNC role, preferably focusing on missile or weapons systems
• Experience with flight test and debugging GNC on UAV platforms
• Experience with GNC design and analysis for fixed wing, rotary wing aircraft and/or tactical missile systems
• Experience with seeker integration
• Experience in one or more of the following: VIO, TERCOM, gimbal mount models, detection and tracking, LWIR/EO sensors, RADAR, target motion models
• Experience with Simulink Embedded Coder