Overview

Axient LLC is currently seeking a Controls Engineer to provide advisory and assistance services in support of customer needs at Arnold AFB, TN.

Responsibilities

The Controls Engineer will serve as the expert working with IPT Leads, Chief Engineers, and team members to develop objectives, opportunities, strategies, and plans to implement control solutions. The Controls Engineer will also assist in identifying and implementing innovative technologies to expedite the development of solutions and improve system engineering. Candidate work within an established and very skilled team of engineers and scientists, contributing to various projects which often require analyzing, understanding, and modeling complex, real-world phenomena to support design and decision making. You will be given the opportunity to provide important contributions for challenging problems to ongoing programs. Because of this, we seek team members that are driven and engaged in their work while simultaneously demonstrating high character, given that you will often be working on sensitive and unique problems which require a high degree of trust from our customers.

Duties will include but are not limited to:

• Research, design, and implement successful control strategies for facility assests
• Use modeling and simulation tools to develop and test control systems
• Identification and specification of related platform components
• Develop, mature and use control engineering methodologies
• Write, test, and document simulated control law models according to development standards

Additional responsibilities the Controls Engineer will be required to execute:

• Resolve technical issues that may affect development schedule or overall performance of the system
• Develop control algorithm(s) and rapid development experiments
• Conduct and participate in technical exchange meetings and working groups
• Develop and present technical and status briefings to Senior Leadership
• Establish a supporting infrastructure and environment that uses models to inform decisions points and support collaboration and communication across all stakeholders

Qualifications

Minimum Requirements:

• 5 years of experience developing control systems involving hardware/software, with demonstrated deep understanding of system dynamics, classical and modern control theory/design/analysis
• Bachelor’s degree in Controls/Electrical/Aerospace/Mechanical Engineering from an ABET accredited university or college, or related field
• Experience working in Model Based Development of control systems, including proficiency in MATLAB/Simulink or another model-based development toolset
• Strong understanding of control system requirements, design, analysis, verification, and validation activities

• Advanced understanding of classical control theory – time/frequency domains, stability analysis, PID control, Stability analyses, performance-based analyses, digital filtering, etc.
• Demonstrated knowledge and implementation of hardware/software and instrumentation interfaces (Discrete/Analog I/O, serial/parallel communication, reflective memory)
• Familiarity with common industry instrumentation (transducers, thermocouples, strain gauges, flow meters, etc.)

• Demonstrated knowledge of current and emerging control theory, solutions, and initiatives across government and commercial industries

• Additional proficiencies in: Electrical Circuit Fundamentals (AC/DC), Distributed Computing, Controller Hardware, Physics Fundamentals, Programming (Python or MATLAB/Simulink or C )

• Ability to work independently or with a team, demonstrate strong initiative, and organize all tasking with minimal supervision

• Candidate must be a US Citizen and possess (or ability to obtain) a Secret Clearance

Desired skills/experience:

• 10 years developing complex integrated systems involving hardware/software to support aerospace and/or electrical system dynamics/performance modeling and simulation
• MS/PhD in Controls/Electrical/Aerospace/Mechanical Engineering from an ABET accredited university or college, or related field
• Demonstrated knowledge of advanced control theories including linear, non-linear, optimal and other modern methods such as: Feedback Linearization, Model Reference Adaptive Control (MRAC), Neural Networks, Sliding Mode Control (SMC), Linear Quadratic Regulator (LQR), Kalman Filters, Linear Quadratic Gaussian (LQG), /, etc.
• Advanced understanding of system stability and sensitivity analyses techniques such as Lyapunov functions, limit cycles, equilibrium points, describing functions, Nyquist and Bode plots
• Competent in using MATLAB/Simulink for physical system and/or controls modeling, simulation and analysis

• Experience designing, implementing, and testing software for real-time systems in LabVIEW, such as Hardware-in-the-Loop (HWIL)

• Professional Engineer (PE) registration
• Possession of an active Secret Clearance