GNC Lead
GalaxEye · Aerospace & Defense
- Banglorenorth, India
- On-site
- Posted 14 days ago
- Full time
About the job
GalaxEye is hiring a GNC Lead for DG-2 Nexus, a 250–300 kg class smallsat. The role carries two mandates: acting as GalaxEye's technical authority over a turnkey ADCS procured from an external vendor, and building our internal ADCS design and analysis capability in parallel. You must be able to independently reproduce and challenge the vendor's analysis rather than manage it at arm's length.
Responsibilities
Own ADCS requirements, pointing budgets — accuracy, knowledge, stability, jitter, agility, settling — and their flow-down from mission needs
Own the ADCS SRD and the ADCS-to-bus ICD
Run vendor technical evaluation and selection; review and independently verify vendor design data packs, analysis and simulation results
Define and agree the acceptance test campaign; witness and accept vendor testing
Own sensor and actuator accommodation — mounting, alignment, FOV, thermal, magnetic cleanliness, EMC
Build and own GalaxEye's internal closed-loop 6-DOF ADCS simulation, including flexible body dynamics and environmental disturbances
Design attitude determination and control: sensor fusion and estimation, control laws, mode design and transition logic, FDIR and safe mode
Size actuators and define momentum management strategy
Run Monte Carlo campaigns for performance and robustness verification
Provide mass properties, MOI, CG and alignment constraints to the mechanical team; ADCS processing and telemetry requirements to C&DH
Interface with the Missions team on manoeuvres and attitude control during burns
Own GNC content at MCR, PDR, DDR, CDR and FRR; own on-orbit commissioning and ADCS performance characterisation
Requirements
7+ years in spacecraft GNC/ADCS
Has taken at least one ADCS through to flight and on-orbit operation
Deep attitude dynamics and control fundamentals — able to derive, not only apply
Has built closed-loop ADCS simulations in MATLAB/Simulink, Python or equivalent
Attitude estimation — Kalman filtering, sensor fusion, star tracker and gyro integration
Pointing budget derivation and allocation across error sources
Actuator sizing and momentum management
Has specified or accepted an ADCS or comparable subsystem from an external supplier
Desirable
Earth observation mission GNC — agile, slew-intensive tasking
Smallsat ADCS in the 100–500 kg class
Flexible body dynamics and jitter analysis
Hardware- or processor-in-the-loop test setup
Flight software interface — algorithm handover and V&V
Orbit determination and GNSS processing
On-orbit commissioning and anomaly resolution
Familiarity with the ADCS supplier landscape
Qualifications
Degree in Aerospace Engineering, Control Systems or a closely related discipline; postgraduate qualification preferred
Benefits
What We Offer
Fair Compensation in line with current market standards.
Start-up Culture: Be part of a high-growth, innovation-driven team.
Open Culture: Freedom to explore, propose, and implement new ideas and processes.
Leadership Exposure: Opportunity to work directly with the Founding Team at GalaxEye.
Industry Mentorship: Work with advisors and mentors holding senior positions and decades of industry experience.