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.

The Advanced Programs group has an exciting opportunity in San Diego, CA (Poway, CA) for a Flight Autonomy Engineer  to oversee the definition and development of vehicle control systems for application on emerging unmanned air vehicle concepts.  The department seeks a candidate with proficient design and application experience in air data, flight control actuation, guidance, navigation, and vehicle control, control-law design and analysis, and flight test to support emerging advanced aircraft development programs.  Experience in front-end air vehicle system development efforts including requirements development, clean-sheet design, software integration and validation, and lab/ground/flight-based test planning, execution, and analysis will be required.

DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIESDevelop technical roadmap and execution plans for the design, development, integration, and test of an advanced vehicle management and control system Develop technical and strategy-level briefings for internal and external stakeholder reviewRegular communication with Advanced Programs and ASI executive leadership Provide regular technical mentorship to lower-level technical team members Flight critical sensor and actuation architecture and design Vehicle navigation system architecture and designDiscrete flight control law design, classical stability analysis, Lyapunov stability analysis, and flying qualities analysis.Flight autonomy architecture and designTranslate the physics of flight control avionics, the aerodynamic characteristics, and the mass properties of a conceptual aircraft into MATLAB scripts and Simulink models for real-time simulation.Construct MATLAB/Simulink models for automatic code generation.Independently verify and validate the embedded control law software on simulated hardware and on the actual hardware.Support the decomposition of mission use cases to define control system requirements that are compliant with adequate MIL Specs.Adapt advanced control theory for a variety of advanced concepts air system configurationsDevelop analytical tools as required for advanced concepts.Perform vehicle-control-system-related tasks for all phases of a new aircraft development program, including requirements development, clean-sheet design, software integration and validation, flight test planning, and analysis of flight data through prototype flight tests.Liaison to propulsion, aerodynamics, mass properties, and other disciplines.We recognize and appreciate the value and contributions of individuals with diverse backgrounds and experiences and welcome all qualified individuals to apply.