2025 Flight Dynamics Engineer
| Company | The Aerospace Coporation |
|---|---|
| Location | Colorado Springs, CO, USA, Albuquerque, NM, USA, Chantilly, VA, USA, El Segundo, CA, USA |
| Salary | $100000 – $130000 |
| Type | Full-Time |
| Degrees | Master’s, PhD |
| Experience Level | Entry Level/New Grad |
Requirements
- Master’s or PhD degree from an accredited program in Aerospace/Aeronautical Engineering, Astronautical Engineering, Physics, Computer Science or Applied Mathematics or related discipline (pursuing or conferred within the last 12 months)
- 0 – 1 year of work experience.
- Proficiency with one or more of the following programming languages/tools: C, C++, Python, Fortran, MATLAB.
- Strong written and verbal communication skills and ability to work well in a team environment
- Must possess strong organizational, time management, and project management skills
- GPA 3.0 or higher
- This position requires the ability to obtain and maintain a security clearance, which is issued by the US government. U.S citizenship is required to obtain a security clearance.
- Willing to travel domestically to customer and contractor facilities (approx. 10%)
Responsibilities
- Cislunar and exploration-class orbital mechanics analysis and trajectory optimization
- Hypersonics, missiles, interceptors, and reentry vehicle trajectory design and optimization
- Time-dependent Traveling Salesman Problems and Facility Location Problem analysis
- Astrodynamics and orbital mechanics analysis including orbit propagation and maneuver design and optimization for orbit transfer, station keeping, graveyard, disposal, and reentry events
- Analysis of vehicles with chemical and/or electric propulsion
- Evaluating contested missions applications for space systems to understand threat performance, assess vulnerabilities, and improve system resiliency
- Developing Concepts of Operations (CONOPS), exploring Tactics, Techniques, and Procedures (TTPs), and incorporating operational constraints into the design and maturation of space and near-space systems
- Providing operational support for nominal launch and spacecraft deployment and transfer sequences, anomaly resolution, and on-call emerging events
- Utilizing optimal control, flight mechanics, and computer science/algorithm development skills to create new capabilities to service customer requests as stand-alone services and/or ready-to-integrate submodules
- Performing research and development and building new flight dynamics tools to cultivate and maintain a healthy and modern internal tool base
- Leveraging external tools like ASSET, GPOPS-II, SNOPT, POST, OTIS, Copernicus, GMAT, EMTG, etc. where appropriate to augment internally developed capabilities
- Maneuver and orbit design, selection, and optimization for missions that support Rendezvous and Proximity Operations (RPO) objectives with complex operational constraints
- Trajectory design and optimization for launch vehicles and spacecraft for missions operating in LEO, MEO, HEO, GEO, and other earth-centric regimes
Preferred Qualifications
- GPA 3.5 or higher
- Graduate degree and/or research in Aerospace engineering
- Active security clearance
- Experience in mission design and spacecraft or launch operations.
- Experience using or building analysis software to combine numerical methods, orbital or flight mechanics, and optimization approaches for launch vehicles, missiles, interceptors, spacecraft, or reentry vehicles (hypersonics)
- Experience with nonlinear programming (non-linear programming), direct methods, gradient-based optimization, parameter optimization, genetic algorithms, evolutionary algorithms, heuristic optimization methods, indirect methods, and/or calculus of variations
- Advanced algorithm development skills to include parallel processing and scripting experience