Senior GNC Engineer
Venn Group · Ascot, England ·
Senior GNC Engineer – UAV / Flight Controls
Location: near Berkshire
Salary: £55,000–£70,000 depending on experience
Working pattern: Full-time, predominantly on-site
Clearance: Candidates must be eligible for UK SC clearance
Summary
Venn Group is working exclusively with an defence technology company to recruit a Senior Guidance, Navigation and Control Engineer.
You will join its autonomy and software team, taking ownership of guidance, navigation and control across a varied portfolio of operational platforms. This is a hands-on position covering control-law development, state estimation, autopilot modification, simulation and flight testing. You will work from initial modelling and embedded implementation through to field trials and analysis of real flight data.
Key responsibilities
Design, implement and tune control laws and estimators for air and ground platforms
Develop solutions from requirements through to flight-proven embedded code
Modify and extend PX4, ArduPilot or proprietary autopilot stacks
Work on estimators, controllers, mixers, failsafes and hardware drivers
Develop navigation capability for GNSS-degraded and GNSS-denied environments
Deliver transfer alignment and INS integration between host platforms and deployed systems
Build plant models and SITL/HITL simulation environments
Conduct system identification using flight-test data
Plan and support flight trials, including instrumentation and control-loop tuning
Investigate anomalies and analyse flight logs
Produce evidence supporting qualification and safety cases
Contribute to wider flight-software and systems-engineering activity
Essential experience
Degree in aerospace, electronic, electrical, control or robotics engineering, or a related discipline
At least five years’ experience in GNC, flight control or state estimation
Control design and tuning demonstrated on flying hardware
Strong understanding of Kalman filtering and multisensor fusion
Experience combining inertial, GNSS, visual or RF-derived data
Source-level experience modifying PX4, ArduPilot or a proprietary autopilot
Strong embedded C or C++ programming skills
MATLAB/Simulink or Python for modelling and analysis
SITL/HITL simulation and plant modelling
Flight-data analysis, system identification and control-loop diagnosis
Experience of degraded or denied-GNSS navigation, or strong knowledge of the underlying estimation techniques
Eligibility to obtain UK SC clearance; some programmes may require sole UK nationality
Desirable experience
Transfer alignment or INS integration
Guided weapons, launched effects or autonomous systems
Visual-inertial odometry
Terrain, feature or RF-aided navigation
Tethered, launched or VTOL-transition platforms
Managing structural coupling and vibration effects within control loops
ROS 2
MSc or PhD in control, estimation or robotics
Current or previously held SC or DV clearance
Package
£55,000–£70,000 depending on experience
28 days’ annual leave plus bank holidays
Employer pension contribution
Occasional home working where project activity permits
Direct involvement in prototype development and live flight trials
This role would suit a Senior GNC Engineer, Flight Controls Engineer, Control Systems Engineer, Navigation Engineer or Autonomy Engineer seeking ownership of systems from simulation through to flight.
Apply with an up-to-date CV for a confidential discussion.