Approach Venture

GNC Engineer - Develop the guidance, navigation, and control systems behind a new generation of modular, reconfigurable spacecraft

Golden, Colorado | On-site

Opportunity Summary

This role will own major portions of the spacecraft attitude determination and control system, from early architecture and simulation through flight software implementation, hardware-in-the-loop testing, and on-orbit operations. You will develop the algorithms that allow a changing spacecraft configuration to de-tumble, point, slew, manage momentum, and operate safely in orbit. The work combines spacecraft dynamics, estimation, controls, embedded software, simulation, hardware integration, and flight operations, with significant influence over both current and future vehicle architectures.

About Us

We are a venture-backed space technology company developing advanced modular spacecraft systems designed to operate, connect, and reconfigure in orbit. The team is small, highly technical, and progressing from flight demonstration toward operational systems. Engineers work across disciplines and have meaningful ownership over hardware and software that will ultimately operate in space.

Job Duties

• Own attitude determination and control for the spacecraft, including de-tumble, pointing, slewing, momentum management, and safe-mode behavior
• Develop high-reliability GNC algorithms, simulations, analysis tools, and operational software using C++ and Python
• Design and implement spacecraft attitude estimation and control algorithms within the flight software stack
• Develop momentum management strategies across reaction wheels, magnetic actuators, and propulsion systems
• Model and control spacecraft with changing inertia, center of mass, and structural characteristics
• Account for flexible-body dynamics and uncertainty in spacecraft mass properties
• Lead trade studies and sizing activities for ADCS sensors and actuators
• Support selection and integration of reaction wheels, magnetorquers, thrusters, star trackers, sun sensors, rate sensors, and GNSS hardware
• Define vehicle-level GNC requirements and operating concepts
• Balance pointing, thermal, power, communications, momentum, and fault-management requirements
• Build and run 6DOF simulations and Monte Carlo analyses to evaluate performance and robustness
• Verify algorithms using hardware-in-the-loop test environments
• Support spacecraft integration, test, and flight readiness activities
• Monitor on-orbit GNC health and performance
• Lead investigations into attitude-control anomalies and drive corrective actions
• Contribute to relative navigation and attitude-control algorithms supporting rendezvous, proximity operations, and docking
• Work closely with flight software, avionics, propulsion, structures, test, and mission operations teams

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in aerospace engineering, mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, physics, mathematics, or a related technical discipline
• Strong software development capability in C++ and Python
• Strong foundation in spacecraft dynamics, controls, or estimation
• Ability to translate analytical and simulation work into production flight software
• Comfortable working across software, hardware, simulation, and test environments
• Ability to independently solve complex technical problems in a fast-moving engineering environment
• Strong written and verbal communication skills

Preferred Experience

• Master's degree or PhD in aerospace engineering, controls, physics, or a related discipline
• 2+ years of professional GNC or attitude-control experience
• End-to-end development of spacecraft ADCS from requirements through flight
• Strong understanding of quaternion-based attitude dynamics and control
• Experience with reaction-wheel control, momentum management, and desaturation
• Experience with magnetic and propulsive attitude-control systems
• Knowledge of flexible-body dynamics and control of vehicles with changing or uncertain mass properties
• Understanding of on-orbit disturbance torques including gravity gradient, aerodynamic drag, solar radiation pressure, and residual magnetic effects
• Experience with orbital mechanics and spacecraft flight dynamics
• Experience with attitude determination and state estimation methods such as Kalman filtering
• Familiarity with star tracker, sun sensor, gyro, GNSS, or other navigation sensor fusion
• Experience with orbit determination using GNSS, radio navigation, or ground tracking
• Experience developing and validating spacecraft dynamics simulations
• Experience with 6DOF simulation and Monte Carlo analysis
• Hardware-in-the-loop testing experience
• Experience defining subsystem requirements, architecture, and concepts of operation from a clean sheet
• Familiarity with spacecraft structures, power, propulsion, avionics, flight software, and mission operations
• Experience developing, testing, and deploying algorithms on real spacecraft, robotics, or autonomous systems
• Familiarity with Git or similar version-control tools

Why Join Us

• Own a mission-critical spacecraft subsystem from architecture through flight
• Solve complex GNC problems involving changing spacecraft configurations and distributed control
• Work directly across controls, flight software, avionics, propulsion, structures, and mission operations
• Join a small engineering team with significant ownership over technical direction
• See algorithms progress from simulation to hardware testing and ultimately on-orbit operation
• Equity participation through stock options
• Medical, dental, and vision coverage
• Short- and long-term disability insurance
• Life insurance
• Paid parental leave
• Three weeks of paid vacation
• Ten or more paid holidays annually

Compensation Details

$120,000 - $170,000