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Flight Controls Engineer (R4815)

Shield AI· X-BAT Division – X-BAT Engineering - Software
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Hybrid (Seattle, Washington), Hybrid (Dallas, Texas), Hybrid (San Diego, California)$220k - $340kFull Time EmployeePosted 6mo ago

About the role

Design, implement, and flight-test autonomous shipboard recovery guidance for XBAT, focusing on precision recovery to moving ships in GPS-degraded/denied environments. Own recovery guidance algorithms and integration with relative navigation, flight controls, and recovery hardware.

Responsibilities

  • Design and implement ship-relative guidance for approach, station keeping, alignment, and terminal recovery.
  • Develop deck-motion compensation and landing-timing strategies that account for navigation uncertainty, aircraft response, control authority, and touchdown or capture constraints.
  • Work closely with state estimation and sensing teams to define relative-navigation requirements and ensure recovery guidance remains robust to measurement errors, latency, and intermittent sensor availability.
  • Implement recovery sequencing and contingency logic, including hold, wave-off, go-around, retry, and responses to degraded or lost navigation.
  • Develop and integrate real-time guidance software in C++, working with flight controls, autonomy, embedded software, and recovery-system teams.
  • Define recovery performance requirements and verify them through 6DOF simulation, Monte Carlo analysis, software-in-the-loop testing, and hardware-in-the-loop testing.
  • Support test planning, flight readiness assessments, and flight operations. Analyze test data, diagnose performance shortfalls, and drive improvements between tests.
  • Provide technical direction within the recovery-guidance effort, mentor engineers, and communicate design decisions, limitations, and test results across teams.

Qualifications

  • Demonstrated hands-on experience designing, implementing, and flight-testing guidance laws for autonomous shipboard recovery, including recovery using relative navigation without GPS/GNSS.
  • Strong understanding of moving-platform guidance, ship-relative reference frames, deck motion, and terminal position, velocity, and attitude constraints.
  • Experience integrating guidance with relative-navigation systems and assessing the closed-loop effects of navigation bias, noise, latency, and dropouts.
  • Strong background in flight dynamics and guidance and control, including the relationship between guidance demands, aircraft tracking bandwidth, and available control authority.
  • Proficiency in C++ for real-time algorithm implementation and MATLAB/Simulink or Python for algorithm development and analysis.
  • Experience executing verification and validation through simulation, hardware integration, flight testing, and post-flight analysis.
  • Demonstrated ability to own a technical capability, resolve problems across subsystem boundaries, and work effectively with navigation, controls, software, and test engineers.
  • Ability to obtain and maintain a U.S. security clearance.

Skills

Required:Shipboard recovery guidance designMoveable-platform guidanceRelative-navigation integrationFlight dynamics & G&CProgramming for real-time systemsAlgorithm development/toolsVerification & validation

Benefits

  • Pay within range listed + Bonus + Benefits + Equity
  • Temporary employee benefits after 60 days of employment
  • Equal opportunity employer with accommodations available
Last updated Oct 23, 2026. Interested? Apply on the company site.

About Shield AI

Autonomy for the world.

Our mission is to protect service members and civilians with intelligent systems.

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