This position is responsible for leading development efforts, supporting a technically diverse team, and conducting detailed analyses of navigation technology and missions. The ideal candidate will be an experienced professional who can drive innovation, mentor junior engineers, and support spaceflight operations. This role will be based in Westminster, Colorado, and the ideal candidate will have a passion for the exploration, development, and settlement of space.
This position is open to U.S. Persons only (U.S. citizens, or lawful permanent residents), as required by applicable laws and regulations.
THE FOLLOWING ACTIVE SECURITY CLEARANCE is desired but not required - TS/SCI IS PREFERRED
We do not provide visa sponsorship or support work authorization for this role. Candidates must be authorized to work in the U.S. without the need for current or future sponsorship.
Responsibilities:
- Lead spacecraft navigation for all mission phases, including formulation, tracking architecture development, estimation approach, and operations.
- Develop and validate advanced Kalman filter configurations for complex regimes (multi-body, low-thrust, weak observability).
- Serve as primary navigation lead for flight operations operations prep, including console support, real-time OD, and anomaly response.
- Architect navigation solutions that account for mission design, GNC, communications, and ground system constraints.
- Own navigation products for major reviews, clearly communicating performance, trades, and risks.
- Mentor junior navigation engineers in OD, filter design, measurement modeling, and operations best practices.
- Drive improvements to navigation procedures, tool setups, and standard operating practices.
- Support BD and IRAD by shaping navigation concepts, contributing to proposals, and defining new mission and capability concepts.
Requirements:
- 8–12 years of professional experience in spacecraft navigation, orbit determination, or closely related flight dynamics roles.
- Bachelor’s degree in Aerospace Engineering, Systems Engineering, or related field.
- Demonstrated leadership of OD campaigns or major navigation tasks, including filter setup, force models, and tracking strategies.
- Proven ability to design and adapt Kalman filters for new dynamical and tracking regimes, including dynamic, bias, stochastic, and consider parameters.
- Significant experience with navigation/astrodynamics tools (e.g., MONTE, FreeFlyer, ODTK, GMAT, STK) in flight or flight-like applications.
- Strong navigation operations experience, including nav operator training/certification or equivalent console and contingency support.
- Ability to act as primary navigation point of contact, interacting with vendors and partners, driving requirements, owning verification/validation, and conducting system-level trades.
- Excellent written and verbal communication, with a record of leading technical presentations and navigation analysis reports.
- US. Person (U.S. citizen or lawful permanent resident), able to work on-site in Westminster, CO.
Desired:
- Master’s or PhD with emphasis on Kalman filters, state estimation, or astrodynamics
- Experience leading navigation support for maneuver planning and execution, including tracking schedule design and mission design trades.
- Expertise across multiple measurement types (radiometric, GPS, optical, angles-only) and in designing measurement configurations.
- Experience integrating navigation into system requirements, CONOPS, and ICDs, and leading navigation verification and reporting.
- Demonstrated use of the MONTE astrodynamics toolkit
- Leadership of navigation-related IRAD or proposal sections, shaping IRAD concepts and navigation win themes.
- Familiarity with cislunar and deep-space navigation challenges, including three-body regimes, timing/clock issues, and tracking network limitations.
- Familiarity with multi-spacecraft mission concepts
- Active TS/SCI or prior clearance preferred.
Skills Required
- 8-12 years professional experience in spacecraft navigation, orbit determination, or related flight dynamics
- Bachelor's degree in Aerospace Engineering, Systems Engineering, or related field
- Demonstrated leadership of OD campaigns or major navigation tasks, including filter setup, force models, and tracking strategies
- Proven ability to design and adapt Kalman filters for diverse dynamical/tracking regimes (dynamic, bias, stochastic, consider parameters)
- Significant experience with navigation/astrodynamics tools (MONTE, FreeFlyer, ODTK, GMAT, STK) in flight or flight-like applications
- Strong navigation operations experience, including nav operator training/certification or equivalent console and contingency support
- Ability to act as primary navigation point of contact with vendors and partners, drive requirements, and own verification/validation
- Excellent written and verbal communication; record of leading technical presentations and navigation analysis reports
- US Person (U.S. citizen or lawful permanent resident) and able to work on-site in Westminster, CO; no visa sponsorship provided
- Master's or PhD with emphasis on Kalman filters, state estimation, or astrodynamics
- Experience leading navigation support for maneuver planning/execution, tracking schedule design, and mission design trades
- Expertise across multiple measurement types (radiometric, GPS, optical, angles-only) and designing measurement configurations
- Experience integrating navigation into system requirements, CONOPS, ICDs, and leading navigation verification and reporting
- Demonstrated use of the MONTE astrodynamics toolkit
- Familiarity with cislunar/deep-space navigation challenges, three-body regimes, timing/clock issues, and tracking network limitations
- Active TS/SCI or prior clearance
What We Do
Red Canyon Engineering and Software develops cutting-edge technology to help humankind explore space and other planets, as well as advanced renewable resources on Earth. We are proud to be involved with important missions ranging from searching for water on Mars, to analyzing the composition of distant comets, and building the next human spacecraft. Our clients include government agencies such as NASA, NOAA, NREL, JPL, and DOD, in addition to customers such as Lockheed Martin Space, Raytheon, Sierra Nevada Corporation, a.i. solutions, Walt Disney Imagineering, SAIC, Ball Aerospace, SpaceX, Honeywell, KBRwyle, Maxar, Blue Origin, and Moog. We are an SBA certified HUBZone and Service Disabled Veteran Owned Small Business (SDVOSB).
