Flight Controls Engineer

JOB TITLE: Flight Controls Engineer

DEPARTMENT: Engineering

REPORTING TO: Program Manager

SUMMARY:

The Aerospace Simulation & Controls Engineer plays a fundamental role in developing the key elements of an autonomous system. This position will design and develop flight or mission-critical onboard software for aircraft, helicopters, vision systems, situational awareness and collision avoidance systems, and path planning systems. As part of a dynamic, multidisciplinary team, the candidate will participate hands-on in the full software life cycle, from concept through implementation; integration all the way to flight test. Piasecki Aircraft uses a multidisciplinary team to generate solutions, and our software development team frequently drives system design and execution of the research. A broad perspective and passion for execution are typical characteristics of successful software engineers at Piasecki Aircraft.

RESPONSIBILITIES:

• Aerospace requirements definition and specification development
• Develop sequencing logic for vehicle autopilot, autonomy, and sub-system automation.
• Design software architecture and interfaces and implement functionality, typically using a model-based approach.
• Provide development Hardware-in-the-Loop (HITL) simulation.
• Perform stability and control analysis of integrated flight and propulsion control systems.
• Develop requirements and test cases for formal verification and validation in a simulation environment and systems integration labs.
• Write test plans and test cases, conduct unit-, integration-, and system-level testing.
• Support aircraft flight testing.

KNOWLEDGE / SKILLS / ABILITIES:

• 5+ years of relevant aerospace or robotics experience. Advanced degrees could substitute for experience.
• Proficiency in MATLAB/Simulink (specifically auto-generation of C code from Simulink models), Python (general rigid body aircraft simulation & other HITL simulation processes), and C.
• Experience with the design of flight control laws for atmospheric flight vehicles including linear and non-linear analysis techniques in the time and frequency domains.
• Experience with flight dynamics and simulation modeling.
• Strong analytical and problem-solving skills with a team player mindset
• Experience with desktop analysis, piloted software-in-the-loop simulation, piloted software and hardware-in-the loop test labs, and/or aircraft flight test.

EDUCATION / CERTIFICATIONS / CLEARANCES:

• Bachelor’s degree with a major in Electrical Engineering, Aerospace Engineering or Mechanical Engineering
• Graduate degree, preferred