Navigation Engineer

Moonshot Aerospace is seeking a Staff Navigation Engineer to lead spacecraft navigation system design and analysis. Initial assignments will support navigation system development for lunar lander, cislunar orbital transfer vehicle (OTV), and related spacecraft programs for commercial and government customers, including the Human Landing System (HLS) and Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS). 

This is a navigation-focused position requiring deep experience in Kalman filter design, spacecraft state estimation, and navigation sensor integration for cislunar and planetary environments. The engineer will serve as a technical authority on navigation architecture and will be expected to independently drive navigation system development from requirements through flight operations support. Multiple experience levels are available, and responsibilities will scale with demonstrated capability. 

Responsibilities 

• Design, develop, and tune navigation filters (EKF) for lunar lander, OTV, and related spacecraft applications 

• Define navigation system architecture for cislunar and planetary mission phases including sensor selection, measurement models, and filter configuration 

• Develop navigation error budgets and perform covariance analysis for orbit determination and powered descent 

• Implement navigation algorithms in flight software and support SWIL/HWIL integration and test 

• Perform Monte Carlo analysis to verify navigation performance under dispersed conditions across cislunar and descent phases 

• Develop and validate sensor models (IMU, star tracker, GPS/GNSS, LiDAR, optical navigation camera) for lunar and cislunar environments 

• Support navigation sensor testing, calibration, and characterization 

• Contribute to technical documentation, peer reviews, and customer presentations 

• Collaborate across GN&C, flight software, and systems engineering teams 

Required Qualifications 

• U.S. Citizenship and ability to obtain and maintain a security clearance 

• B.S. in Aerospace Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Physics, or related field 

• 5+ years of professional experience in spacecraft navigation system design and analysis 

• Demonstrated experience designing and implementing Kalman filters for spacecraft applications 

• Experience with navigation sensor integration and testing (IMU, star tracker, GPS, LiDAR) 

• Strong programming skills in C/C++, Python, and MATLAB 

• Experience with spacecraft dynamics and orbital mechanics 

• Familiarity with real-time software systems and flight software integration 

• Effective written and verbal communication skills 

Preferred Qualifications 

• M.S. or Ph.D. in Aerospace Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Physics, or related field 

• 8+ years of navigation engineering experience on spacecraft programs 

• Lunar or cislunar navigation experience, including orbit determination and powered descent navigation 

• Terrain Relative Navigation (TRN), optical navigation, or image-based navigation for lunar surface operations 

• Experience with navigation analysis tools (MONTE, GEONS, ODTK, or equivalent) 

• Multi-sensor fusion and relative navigation for rendezvous and proximity operations 

• Hardware-in-the-loop (HWIL) navigation sensor integration and test 

• Experience with NASA Trick simulation framework or equivalent 

• Conference publications or technical papers in spacecraft navigation 

• Launch vehicle or satellite navigation experience