At Vast, our mission is to contribute to a future where billions of people are living and thriving in space. We are building artificial gravity space stations, allowing long-term stays in space without the adverse effects of zero-gravity. Our initial crewed space habitat will be Haven-1, scheduled to be the world’s first commercial space station when it launches into low-Earth orbit in 2026. It is part of our stepping stone approach to continuous human presence in LEO. Our team is all-in, committed to executing our mission safely and on time. If you want to work with the most talented people on Earth furthering space exploration for humanity, come join us.
Vast is looking for a Staff GNC Engineer reporting to the Vice President, Flight Dynamics & GNC, to support the development of the systems that will be required for the design and build of artificial-gravity human-rated space stations.
This will be a full-time, exempt position located in our Long Beach location.
Responsibilities:
- Maintain and expand high fidelity GNC simulation architecture.
- Develop and validate additional models for GNC simulations, including hardware-in-the-loop testing.
- Design, implement and validate GNC flight software.
- Develop control laws to meet vehicle performance and stability margin requirements.
- Support flight activities and analyze flight performance data.
Minimum Qualifications:
- Bachelor's degree in a Science, Technology, Engineering or Mathematics (STEM) discipline.
- 10+ years of experience.
- Excellent C/C++ programming skills.
Preferred Skills & Experience:
- Master’s degree or PhD in a STEM discipline.
- Python programming skills.
- Excellent communication, analysis, and problem-solving skills.
- Experience in orbital mechanics as well as attitude dynamics and control.
- Experience using linear control principles and tools to design feedback control systems.
- Experience analyzing non-linear simulations of closed-loop dynamics.
- Working knowledge of outer loop control law performance requirements.
- Experience using MATLAB to create, process, analyze, and visually represent data.
- Experience using Simulink to model dynamic systems.
Pay Ranges:
- Staff GNC Engineer: $185,000 - $240,000
- Principal GNC Engineer: $215,000 - $280,000
U.S. EXPORT CONTROL COMPLIANCE STATUS
The person hired will have access to information and items subject to U.S. export controls, and therefore, must either be a “U.S. person” as defined by 22 C.F.R. § 120.62 or otherwise eligible for deemed export licensing. This status includes U.S. citizens, U.S. nationals, lawful permanent residents (green card holders), and asylees and refugees with such status granted, not pending.EQUAL OPPORTUNITY
Top Skills
What We Do
Vast is developing next-generation space stations to ensure continuous human presence in space for America and its allies, enabling advanced microgravity research and manufacturing, and unlocking a new space economy for government, corporate, and private customers. Using an incremental, hardware-rich and low-cost approach, Vast is rapidly developing its multi-module Haven Station. Haven Demo’s 2025 success made Vast the only operational commercial space station company to fly and operate its own spacecraft. Next, Haven-1 is expected to become the world’s first commercial space station when it launches in 2026, followed by additional Haven modules to enable permanent human presence by 2030.
With more than 1,000 employees at its Long Beach, California headquarters and over a billion dollars in private capital invested, Vast has built the facilities required to manufacture and operate America’s next space station. The company plans to develop future habitats for the Moon and Mars, dedicated space stations for government partners, and other crewed systems that will unlock the expanding long-term space economy.
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