Senior Controls, Modeling, Simulation & Analysis Engineer

Mclaurin Aerospace is hiring a Senior Controls, Modeling, Simulation & Analysis Engineer for its ESSCA contract team at NASA Marshall Space Flight Center. The role models, simulates, and analyzes launch vehicle and spacecraft dynamics and control systems, and supports their design, integration, testing, and verification.

Responsibilities:

• Model, develop, simulate, and analyze launch vehicle and spacecraft dynamics (including aerodynamics, flexible body, slosh, actuators, etc.), control systems, performance, and stability in both the frequency and time domains with varying levels of fidelity
• Resolve complex problems pertaining to the design, development, analysis, integration, evaluation, testing, and verification of control systems and 6-DoF models and simulations
• Conduct verification and validation of launch vehicle and/or spacecraft
• Develop, modify, maintain, and improve software simulations, tools, and scripts
• Configure, conduct, and analyze 6-DoF Monte Carlo simulations
• Conduct trades studies and/or sensitivity analyses related to launch vehicles and spacecraft
• Create, edit, and debug software written in MATLAB, Simulink, and C/C++
• Prepare and present technical reports and/or briefings including visualization of results
• Create and review engineering and software documentation

Requirements:

• A degree in Aerospace, Mechanical or Electrical Engineering or related field from an ABET accredited institution is required
• Typical experience requirements are the equivalent of a PhD with at least 4 years of experience, a master's with at least 8 years of experience, or BS with at least 10 years of experience
• Proficiency modeling, simulating, and analyzing the performance of launch vehicles and spacecraft in the time including using parametric, Monte Carlo, and statistical techniques
• Experience analyzing control stability in the frequency domain (Nichols, Bode, Nyquist, Root Locus, etc.)
• Experience designing and developing flight control systems (PID, state space, etc.) and actuator allocation (manual jet selection, pseudo inverse, etc.) including Thrust Vector Control (TVC) and/or Reaction Control System (RCS)/Phase plane
• Experience modeling one or more spacecraft components/subsystems including actuators, TVC, RCS thrusters, slosh, pogo, rigid and/or flexible body dynamics, and/or sensors
• Proficiency programming in MATLAB, Simulink, and C/C++. This includes debugging and improving the efficiency of simulation tools
• Experience performing trade studies, sensitivity, and/or Monte Carlo simulation and analyses related to the control of launch vehicles and/or spacecraft
• Must be detail oriented and self-motivated that can work independently taking projects from start to finish without much oversight
• Must also be able to work collaboratively with other team members both locally and remote at other facilities or vendors
• Strong written and oral communication, interpersonal, and problem-solving skills
• US Citizenship
• Ability to derive multi-body spacecraft dynamics equations of motion, including both nonlinear equations and linear state equations and integrate subsystem models into larger simulations
• Experience modeling and simulating manual control of spacecraft including but not limited to controllability, transfer function models, Cooper Harper ratings, and paper pilot modeling
• Experience in performing software development, verification, and validation
• Programming in other languages such as Python
• Familiarity with and an understanding of trajectory and orbital dynamics
• Experience with creating animations/visualization from results of 3-DoF/6-DoF simulations using tools such as Unreal Engine, Satellite Tool Kit (STK), etc
• Model based design