Control & Simulation Team Lead

This is a hands-on leadership role owning the guidance and control law design and the simulation environment for an autonomous counter-drone interceptor. You will write and tune code, analyze flight logs, and be in the field on test days, while setting technical direction for a small team. You will own outer-loop guidance, implement and tune controllers, deliver the 6-DOF simulation product, and lead the control and simulation team.

Responsibilities

• Own outer-loop guidance (image-based thermal aim, pursuit/proportional-navigation, latency-compensated LOS, and throttle management) and manage end-to-end latency and stability budgets.
• Implement and tune controllers (from PID/PI to adaptive/MPC), define flight controller interfaces (MSP/CRSF/SBUS injection), and govern the flight-mode state machine, failsafes, and safety envelope.
• Deliver the 6-DOF simulation product (interceptor/target dynamics, thermal seeker), maintain SIL/HIL rigs for unmodified production code, validate models against flight data, and run automated regression suites and KPIs.
• Lead and mentor the control and simulation team, set test-progression gates (sim to full-envelope flight), collaborate closely with Vision and Systems Engineering, and produce all required technical artifacts.

Requirements

• B.Sc. in Aerospace, Electrical, Mechanical Engineering, or Applied Math/Physics.
• 5+ years designing and flight-proving guidance, navigation, or control systems on real hardware — not simulation-only experience.
• 2+ years leading engineers, formally or as a technical lead.
• Strong practical control theory: state-space and classical design, stability margins, discrete-time implementation, cascaded loop architecture, and the failure modes of each.
• Demonstrated experience with state estimation (Kalman/EKF) and sensor fusion.
• Strong Python; C/C++ for real-time or embedded targets.
• Hands-on experience building or heavily extending a physics-based simulation (PyBullet, Gazebo, MuJoCo, Simulink, or in-house) and validating it against measured data.
• Multirotor experience: flight dynamics, PX4/ArduPilot/Betaflight, tuning, and reading flight logs to diagnose control problems.
• Comfortable owning safety-critical decisions on a fast, dangerous airframe, and saying "not yet" when the data doesn't support the next test.