Senior Guidance, Navigation, and Control (GNC) Engineer

About the Company

We are a renewable energy and ocean technology company committed to rapidly developing and deploying technologies that will ensure a sustainable future for Earth by unlocking the vast energy potential of its oceans. Our focus is on capturing civilizational levels of ultra-low-cost renewable energy for applications including computing and affordable renewable fuels delivered to shore.

The company is a public benefit corporation headquartered in Portland, Oregon and backed by leading venture capitalists, philanthropic investors, university endowments, and private investment offices. We operate as an idea meritocracy in which the best ideas change the company's direction on a regular basis.

About the Job

Our core technology is the Node, a device that produces energy in the ocean's harshest conditions for years without human maintenance or intervention. To operate autonomously in the open ocean, the Node must sense its own state, navigate through dynamic currents, shifting weather, and unpredictable sea states, and steer itself reliably over multi-year deployments.

As a Senior GNC Engineer on the Core Electronics & Software team, you'll work across the full Guidance, Navigation, and Control stack to make that possible: supporting the development of control architecture and algorithms while building out the higher-level guidance and navigation layers, always with an eye toward making autonomy perform reliably in the real ocean. Fluency across the whole discipline is essential, but your specialty will be state estimation and navigation, where we're looking for the greatest depth.

You'll work closely with Systems Engineering, CFD, Fleet, and Marine Ops to translate mission requirements into navigation and control interfaces, validation plans, and production software and hardware we can ship. You'll be part of a small team that we expect to grow, and you'll have the opportunity to help shape and mentor it as it does.

Responsibilities

• Design, develop, and tune state estimation, navigation, and control algorithms for the Node across its full envelope of operating conditions.
• Build high-fidelity Node physics models and simulation environments (SIL/HIL) to validate estimator, navigation, and controller performance across operating conditions and edge cases.
• Identify plant dynamics and disturbance models from experimental, HIL, and field data, and use them to inform estimator and controller design and validate model fidelity.
• Lead root cause analysis and resolution of field issues related to navigation and steering behavior, turning real-world data into estimator and controller improvements and calibration updates.

Required Qualifications

• Experience with control and estimation/navigation design and implementation.
• Strong Python for design and analysis as well as production on-target code. Fluency in systems programming languages (C/C++/Rust) to understand the implementation and assist in diagnosing issues.
• Experience designing for failure modes and multi-year unattended endurance: power/energy-aware, comms-loss-tolerant, sensor-health-aware autonomy and safe-modes.
• Experience with HIL/SIL verification and experimental validation (wave tank, model testing).
• A genuine ownership instinct and hands-on approach for deployed systems, including field and remote diagnosis.
• BS, MS, or PhD in Mechanical Engineering, Aerospace / Aeronautical Engineering, Electrical Engineering, or a related field, or equivalent depth of experience in production-level GNC system (typically 5-7+ years).

Desired Qualifications

• Experience working on dynamic positioning / station keeping AUVs, underwater gliders, or other long-endurance autonomous vehicles.
• At-sea/field operations experience.

We encourage you to apply even if you do not meet every desired qualification. If you are a strong engineer motivated by building resilient, high-quality, mission-critical onboard systems, we want to hear from you.

Compensation and Benefits

If hired for this full-time role, you will receive:

• Cash compensation of $200,000 - $280,000.
• Equity in the company. We’re all owners and if we’re successful, this equity should be far and away the most valuable component of your compensation.
• A benefits package that helps you take care of yourself and your family, including:
• Flexible paid time off
• Health insurance (the company pays 100% of gold level PPO plan for full time employees, their partners, and dependents)
• Dental insurance (the company pays 100% for full time employees and 100% for their partners and dependents)
• Vision insurance (the company pays 100% for full time employees, their partners, and dependents)
• Disability insurance (the company pays 100% for a policy to provide long term financial support if you become disabled)
• Ability to contribute to tax-advantaged accounts, including 401(k), health FSA, and dependent care FSA

• Relocation assistance to facilitate your move to Portland (if needed).

Location

This role can be remote, with quarterly travel to our Portland, Oregon office. Portland is where we have offices, lab, and shop space, and where a lot of the real-world debugging happens.