Archer is an aerospace company based in San Jose, California building an all-electric vertical takeoff and landing aircraft with a mission to advance the benefits of sustainable air mobility. We are designing, manufacturing, and operating an all-electric aircraft that can carry four passengers while producing minimal noise.
Our sights are set high and our problems are hard, and we believe that diversity in the workplace is what makes us smarter, drives better insights, and will ultimately lift us all to success. We are dedicated to cultivating an equitable and inclusive environment that embraces our differences, and supports and celebrates all of our team members.
We are seeking a highly skilled Propulsion Controls Engineer to design, develop, and optimize control systems for our advanced electric propulsion and power generation systems. The successful candidate will play a critical role in bringing safe, sustainable, and scalable urban air mobility to life through innovative propulsion control technologies.
What you'll do:- Design, implement, and validate advanced motor/generator control algorithms for electric propulsion systems, including sensorless and observer-based control techniques.
- Develop interfaces between flight control computers, motor/generator inverters, propulsion controls, and battery management systems.
- Coordinate with aerodynamics, structures, and flight controls teams to optimize integrated propulsion system performance.
- Create and maintain control system architectures, including hardware-in-the-loop (HIL) testing environments and plant model development for motor/generator systems.
- Design redundant fault detection, isolation, and recovery systems for safe flight operations, including motor/generator fault handling.
- Conduct rigorous system-level testing and validation of motor control algorithms and observers.
- Perform hardware-in-the-loop and iron-bird testing for flight-critical systems, focusing on motor/generator system performance and safety.
- Support flight testing activities and data analysis for control system validation across the operational envelope.
- Collaborate with flight test team to validate propulsion performance across flight envelope.
- Ensure compliance with DO-178C (software), DO-254 (hardware), and other applicable aviation standards.
- Maintain rigorous configuration management of flight-critical control system software.
- Develop control strategies and algorithms for electric actuators and ancillary propulsion systems.
- 2+ years of experience in aircraft propulsion systems, high-performance electric motor control, flight controls, electric vehicle powertrains, or energy storage systems.
- Extensive experience with advanced motor control algorithms (e.g., FOC, DTC, observers, sensorless control) and multi-motor control architectures preferred.
- Background in flight-critical or safety-critical system development.
- Expert-level proficiency in control integration, state machine design, high-voltage systems, and fault-tolerant control.
- Expert proficiency with system modeling, control system simulation, and plant model development for electric machines (motors/generators).
- Proficiency with MATLAB/Simulink, C/C++ for real-time embedded control systems, and Python for analysis.
- Knowledge of battery management systems and high-voltage safety.
- Experience with system hardware bring-up, HIL testing, and integration of motor/generator drive systems.
Top Skills
What We Do
Archer is an aerospace company building an all-electric vertical takeoff and landing aircraft focused on improving mobility in cities. The company's mission is to advance the benefits of sustainable air mobility. Archer is designing, manufacturing, and operating a fully electric aircraft that can carry four passengers for 60 miles at speeds of up to 150mph while producing minimal noise. Archer's team is based in the San Francisco Bay Area.
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