What are the responsibilities and job description for the Flight Controls Engineer position at General Atomics Aeronautical Systems?
Job Summary
General Atomics Aeronautical Systems, Inc. (GA-ASI), an affiliate of General Atomics, is a world leader in proven, reliable remotely piloted aircraft and tactical reconnaissance radars, as well as advanced high-resolution surveillance systems.
We have an exciting opportunity for a Flight Controls Engineer in the San Diego (Poway, CA) area. In this position, you will play an active role in the design and development of flight controls for cutting-edge next generation unmanned aircraft platforms. Responsibilities include control law design and analysis, physics model generation, and code verification and validation. These responsibilities can span the entire lifecycle of a new aircraft development program, from requirements refinement to detailed design to prototype flight tests. You will have the chance to contribute to a broad swath of novel aircraft platforms ranging from Small Unmanned Air Systems (SUAS) to Collaborative Combat Aircraft (CCA). This position offers competitive benefits, including 9/80 work schedule, medical, dental, employer-matched 401(k), pension plan, employee referral program, and more.
DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES:
Job Qualifications
Salary range: 116,480 - 208,505
General Atomics Aeronautical Systems, Inc. (GA-ASI), an affiliate of General Atomics, is a world leader in proven, reliable remotely piloted aircraft and tactical reconnaissance radars, as well as advanced high-resolution surveillance systems.
We have an exciting opportunity for a Flight Controls Engineer in the San Diego (Poway, CA) area. In this position, you will play an active role in the design and development of flight controls for cutting-edge next generation unmanned aircraft platforms. Responsibilities include control law design and analysis, physics model generation, and code verification and validation. These responsibilities can span the entire lifecycle of a new aircraft development program, from requirements refinement to detailed design to prototype flight tests. You will have the chance to contribute to a broad swath of novel aircraft platforms ranging from Small Unmanned Air Systems (SUAS) to Collaborative Combat Aircraft (CCA). This position offers competitive benefits, including 9/80 work schedule, medical, dental, employer-matched 401(k), pension plan, employee referral program, and more.
DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES:
- Perform GNC-related tasks for all phases of a new aircraft development program, including use case refinement, requirements development, clean-sheet design, software integration and validation, flight test planning, and analysis of flight data through prototype flight tests.
- Translate the physics of flight control avionics, aerodynamic characteristics, and mass properties of a conceptual aircraft into MATLAB scripts and Simulink models for real-time simulation and automatic code generation.
- Design discrete flight control laws, continually performing stability and flying qualities analyses.
- Independently verify and validate the embedded control law software on the simulated and actual hardware.
- Support development of analytic tools as needed for novel aircraft configurations.
- Participate in internal and customer-facing design reviews, test readiness reviews, flight briefings, and technical interchange meetings.
- Collaborate among peers, as part of a multi-disciplinary team (Systems, Software, Mechanical, and Electrical engineering), to solve unique and complex engineering challenges.
Job Qualifications
- Typically requires a bachelors degree, masters degree or PhD in engineering or a related technical discipline from an accredited institution and progressive engineering experience as follows; twelve or more years of experience with a bachelors degree, ten or more years of experience with a masters degree, or seven or more years with a PhD. May substitute equivalent engineering experience in lieu of education.
- Relevant background in the areas of low- and high-speed aerodynamics, control systems, and aircraft dynamics.
- Experience with MATLAB/Simulink modeling, simulation, and analysis of linear and nonlinear dynamic systems.
- Strong knowledge of classical and modern control theory, lower order modeling, and filtering techniques.
- Experience with flight control design and analysis for fixed and rotary wing aircraft or missile systems.
- Experience designing Simulink models for code generation and integration into an established C/C codebase.
- Ability to self-motivate and self-organize to achieve program established deadlines; proactively working independently and collaborating with other disciplines and seeking out help when appropriate.
- Strong communication, presentation, and interpersonal skills to effectively interface with other departments, customers, and/or government representatives.
- Ability to obtain and maintain a DoD Secret security clearance is required.
- Familiarity with Stateflow, Python, and/or C/C .
- Exposure to adjacent technical areas, including Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD), aerodynamics and performance, mass property analysis, servo-mechanical modeling, and/or aircraft structures.
- Active DoD Secret, or higher, security clearance.
Salary range: 116,480 - 208,505