Founding Lead GNC Engineer

Job Title: Founding Lead GNC Engineer (Equity: 0.3% – 1.0%, depending on experience) About Us: Pillar is building space hardware at the edge of what is currently possible: high-stakes, flight-grade systems where the engineering bar is unforgiving and the upside is enormous. We are building an orbital infrastructure company around autonomous spacecraft, rendezvous, proximity operations, docking, and reentry. Our founding and early engineering team includes people from SpaceX, Northrop Grumman, and Starpath, including engineers who have executed some of the hardest operations in spaceflight. Role Overview: We are seeking a Lead Founding GNC Engineer to own guidance, navigation, and control from first principles across rendezvous, proximity operations, docking, and eventually atmospheric reentry. This is a senior technical leadership role. You will not only define and execute the GNC architecture, but also help build the engineering team, set technical standards, mentor engineers, and establish the systems, processes, and culture required to develop flight-grade autonomous spacecraft. This is not a narrow algorithm role. You will help define the full GNC system: trajectories, sensors, actuators, flight software, testbeds, simulations, hardware-in-the-loop infrastructure, fault handling, and flight operations. You will make system-level trades across software, hardware, sensors, autonomy, avionics, propulsion, and mission design. The ideal candidate has direct experience with spacecraft GNC, autonomous RPOD, atmospheric reentry, trajectory design, sensor fusion, hardware testing, and technical team leadership. We recognize that very few people have all of this. What matters most is that you have exceptional fundamentals, have led real systems from concept toward flight, have managed or mentored engineers in high-performance technical environments, and can operate independently in ambiguity while making sound engineering tradeoffs. You will have direct ownership over one of the company’s core technical moats. Key Responsibilities Own the GNC architecture for autonomous rendezvous, proximity operations, docking, undocking, and related mission phases, from early design through simulation, testing, integration, and flight. Lead the development of guidance, navigation, and control algorithms for approach, stationkeeping, docking/capture, aborts, collision avoidance, and other safety-critical maneuvers. Design and analyze trajectories for orbital operations and, where relevant, atmospheric reentry, including mission trades, dispersions, constraints, and operational margins. Provide technical leadership across GNC, autonomy, simulation, test, and flight software efforts. Help hire, manage, mentor, and develop GNC, controls, autonomy, simulation, and related engineers as the team grows. Establish engineering processes, review standards, technical decision-making norms, and verification discipline appropriate for flight-grade systems. Build relative navigation and state-estimation systems using sensors such as vision, LiDAR, radar, IMUs, GNSS, star trackers, and other flight-relevant hardware. Develop high-fidelity simulation, Monte Carlo, hardware-in-the-loop, and processor-in-the-loop test environments to validate GNC performance and robustness. Help define requirements, interfaces, error budgets, verification plans, and fault-handling approaches for the GNC subsystem and broader vehicle. Select, integrate, and test GNC-relevant hardware, including sensors, actuators, processors, and representative test equipment, working with vendors and internal teams as needed. Develop and test flight GNC software in close collaboration with flight software, avionics, autonomy, propulsion, mechanical, and mission operations teams. Contribute to system-level trades across algorithms, sensors, hardware, software, schedule, cost, reliability, and mission risk. Work closely with the founders and early engineering team to shape the technical roadmap, engineering culture, hiring plan, and long-term GNC strategy. Represent the GNC function in cross-disciplinary design reviews, customer conversations, investor diligence, vendor discussions, and mission planning as needed. Basic Qualifications Bachelor’s degree in Aerospace Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Robotics, Controls, Computer Science, or a related technical discipline. 8+ years of experience designing, simulating, implementing, testing, or flight-qualifying GNC algorithms for spacecraft, launch vehicles, hypersonic/reentry systems, autonomous aircraft, robotics, or other high-reliability autonomous systems. Prior experience leading technical workstreams, managing engineers, mentoring junior and mid-level engineers, or building high-performing engineering teams. Demonstrated ability to own complex technical systems from early architecture through implementation, test, validation, and operational readiness. Strong fundamentals in orbital mechanics, control theory, estimation, dynamics, linear algebra, numerical methods, and sensor fusion. Experience with GNC simulation, including 6-DOF dynamics, closed-loop simulation, Monte Carlo analysis, dispersions, and off-nominal testing. Proficiency in MATLAB/Simulink and at least one production language such as C, C++, Python, or Rust. Experience taking algorithms beyond analysis and into real implementation, hardware testing, flight software, embedded systems, hardware-in-the-loop, processor-in-the-loop, or representative testbeds. Ability to work independently with limited direction, identify the right next problem to solve, and drive technical work from ambiguity to tested hardware or software. Ability to make practical system-level tradeoffs across performance, schedule, cost, reliability, testability, and mission risk. Ability to lead through influence in a cross-functional environment spanning flight software, avionics, autonomy, propulsion, mechanical, systems, and mission operations. Highly Valuable Experience We do not expect every candidate to have all of the following. The strongest candidates will likely have depth in some areas and the ability to quickly learn the others. Direct experience with spacecraft rendezvous, proximity operations, docking, or autonomous capture. Experience leading GNC, autonomy, controls, simulation, flight software, or mission design teams. Experience managing engineers in a startup, aerospace company, defense contractor, launch company, robotics company, or other high-reliability technical environment. Experience setting technical direction, conducting design reviews, making architecture decisions, and holding teams accountable to execution milestones. Experience with atmospheric reentry GNC, entry guidance, descent guidance, hypersonic flight, aerodynamics, aerothermal constraints, reentry dispersions, or reentry vehicle control. Experience defining trajectories for RPOD, reentry, docking, inspection, servicing, stationkeeping, or other constrained autonomous spaceflight operations. Experience with optical navigation, LiDAR navigation, radar navigation, or multi-sensor relative navigation against cooperative or non-cooperative targets. Experience integrating radar into an autonomy or GNC sensing chain, including measurement modeling, tracking, calibration, filtering, and failure modes. Experience with AI for GNC, AI-assisted autonomy, learned perception, learned dynamics models, reinforcement learning for control, AI-based sensor processing, onboard autonomy, or AI-enabled fault detection. Experience selecting, purchasing, integrating, and testing GNC hardware, including sensors, actuators, processors, cameras, LiDAR, radar, IMUs, GNSS, star trackers, reaction wheels, or propulsion components. Experience working with vendors, evaluating datasheets, performing make-buy decisions, navigating supply chain issues, and qualifying hardware for flight or other high-reliability environments. Experience designing test infrastructure for hardware developed internally, including calibration rigs, dynamics testbeds, flat-sats, air-bearing tables, sensor test setups, HIL/PIL rigs, and integrated avionics test campaigns. Experience with formal requirements, V&V, flight qualification, mission assurance, fault trees, hazard analysis, or safety-critical software. Experience with STK, GMAT, Basilisk, Trick, Monte, FreeFlyer, custom mission analysis tools, or comparable simulation and trajectory design environments. Experience transitioning GNC from prototype through flight operations, anomaly response, post-flight reconstruction, and design iteration. Experience in early-stage startups, small high-performing teams, or environments where engineers must own broad technical scope. Experience recruiting, interviewing, closing, and onboarding exceptional technical talent. Who You Are You are an exceptional GNC engineer with strong fundamentals and the ability to reason from first principles. You are a technical leader who raises the bar for the people around you. You have managed, mentored, or led engineers before and know how to create clarity, accountability, and momentum in ambiguous environments. You are comfortable owning large, ambiguous, mission-critical problems without waiting for detailed direction. You can move fluidly between analysis, simulation, software, hardware, testing, team leadership, and system-level tradeoffs. You are not just interested in writing algorithms; you want to see them work on real hardware, in real environments, under real constraints. You are excited by RPOD, docking, reentry, autonomy, and the challenge of building flight systems that must work the first time. You are willing to learn unfamiliar domains quickly and deeply, whether that means radar, reentry dynamics, AI-enabled autonomy, supply chain, hardware qualification, or flight operations. You have strong opinions loosely held. You can defend a technical position, accept feedback, change course when the system demands it, and make appropriate tradeoffs in support of the mission. You are collaborative, low-ego, and rigorous. You want founding-level ownership and are motivated by building a company, not just completing assigned tasks. You are excited to help build not only the product, but also the engineering organization behind it. Benefits Health Insurance — We cover the full base premium for Blue Shield’s Bronze plan. If you would like more coverage, you can upgrade to the Gold plan and cover the difference in premium. You are also welcome to add dependents and a spouse to your plan. Dental & Vision — We cover the base premiums for both dental and vision through Guardian. Coverage for dependents and a spouse is available as well. 401(k) — We offer a 401(k) with a 4% company match. Equity — You will receive meaningful equity in the company, so you share in what we build together. PTO & Sick Time — We offer unlimited PTO and sick time, and we trust you to take the time you need to rest and recharge. Why Join Us? Make a clear impact on Earth by enabling the industrialization of Space. Build ambitious, world-first space hardware alongside an exceptional technical team. Own core GNC architecture for autonomous spacecraft, RPOD, docking, and reentry-relevant systems. Build and lead one of the most important technical functions at the company. Work on systems where algorithms, hardware, autonomy, and operations all have to come together. Define the product, culture, technical standards, and trajectory of a breakthrough company from the beginning. Take on significant technical and organizational challenges and create outsized impact. ITAR / Citizenship Requirements To conform to U.S. Government export regulations, applicant must be a:

• i) U.S. citizen or national;
• ii) U.S. lawful permanent resident, also known as a green card holder;
• iii) refugee under 8 U.S.C. § 1157;
• iv) asylee under 8 U.S.C. § 1158;

or be eligible to obtain the required authorizations from the U.S. Department of State.