Staff Engineer, Core Flight Controls

This Staff Engineer role focuses on designing and implementing flight controls for Merlin's aircraft automation system. You will decompose system requirements into low-level flight controls requirements, develop simulation tools, and participate in flight testing. You will own the flight control system end-to-end and collaborate across the company to develop certifiable systems for autonomous flight.

Responsibilities

• Design and implement flight controls for our aircraft automation system.
• Decompose system requirements into low level flight controls requirements
• Help create and use the simulation tools needed for development and testing including
• Simulink control law modeling, analysis using MATLAB and Python.
• Participate in flight testing for system identification and verification of control law performance on multiple aircraft types.
• Own the flight control system from end-to-end and be responsible for product delivery to programs and customers
• Collaborate across Merlin to develop novel, certifiable systems to solve the toughest problems in aviation and autonomy.

Requirements

• BS in Aerospace/Mechanical/Electrical Engineering
• 5+ years of experience developing control systems for fixed wing aircraft, with demonstrated understanding of fixed wing aircraft dynamics, classical and modern control design / analysis
• Experience decomposing systems requirements into high level requirements for both outer loop and inner loop control design
• Experience working in Model Based Development and certification of flight control systems, including proficiency in MATLAB/Simulink or another model-based development toolset
• Experience designing, implementing, and testing software for real-time systems
• Experience with linear model development, linear analysis and frequency domain gain tuning techniques

Nice to have

• MS/PhD in Aerospace Engineering and/or Controls
• Experience developing never-before-flown control systems
• Experience extracting linear state space models from flight test data
• Experience working directly with customers and being a company representative
• Pilot license
• Proficiency in C/C++ or Python

Benefits

• Merlin Labs offers an innovative, entrepreneurial, and team-focused startup environment. We also offer a top-notch benefits package (health, dental, life, unlimited vacation, and 401k with match) and work/life integration. Being part of the Merlin team allows you to become part of a small team that supports professional development while working together to achieve our mission.