Responsibilities

Peraton is seeking an Electrical Engineer to work in the Guidance, Navigation, & Control (GNC) section at Wallops Flight Facility, Wallops Island, VA. Wallops Island, VA is a remote location.

This position supports NASA’s Sounding Rocket Operations Contract (NSROC) at the Wallops Flight Facility. NSROC supports approximately 18 sounding rocket shots per year. This program supports a range of scientific and government experiments. Missions are flown from a variety of launch sites including but not limited to: Wallops, White Sands Missile Range, Poker Flats Rocket Range, Alaska, Kwajalein, Andöya, Norway, and Svalbard. Applicants are encouraged to read about the Sounding Rocket Program and familiarize themselves with the Wallops Island area prior to applying.

In this role, you will be the Attitude Control System or GNC Engineer for sounding rocket missions, and will support system development throughout the entire mission life cycle including launch at remote sites. Travel is required; typical travel to the remote launch site lasts 4 to 6 weeks. The position will require an individual to be living locally to support efforts on base as well as ability to support required telework. You will work on a variety of projects, typically multiple at any one time, and will require an individual able to work individually and in a team environment. 

The position requires the ability to understand and apply a broad range of technical disciplines germane to GNC problems. These areas include, but are not limited to: control systems design and analysis, attitude and navigation solutions, software (C and others, real-time applications), electrical H/W – digital and mixed-signal, mechanical systems, cold gas pneumatics, and various sensors including rate gyros, inertial measurement units, star trackers, accelerometers, and magnetometers. The position will require ability to understand and apply kinematic and dynamic analysis to the motion of sounding rocket payloads.

In this position you will troubleshoot and maintain existing custom electronic system designs and software elements, as well as develop new H/W and S/W systems to support sounding rocket missions. The H/W includes microcontrollers, communications interfaces, analog inputs, DC-DC power supplies, etc. S/W will include real-time systems written in C with significant H/W interaction and interrupt handlers; RTOS’s are not used. Ground support equipment S/W uses a variety of programming languages including, but not limited to: C, C , C#, and Python.

You must be able to adeptly communicate GNC concepts within the program and to the customer, in written, oral, and presentation formats. You will be working with high pressure pneumatics systems. Additionally, this group has a significant manufacturing function that you will support; this includes, but is not limited to: ordering raw material, performing fabrication, testing components, and planning build efforts.

Description:

• Perform analyses of attitude control systems, attitude control problems, navigation issues, sensor performance and their contribution to system performance
• Applies comprehensive knowledge of engineering concepts, procedures and practices to GNC problems
• Participate in technical design/modification negotiations with customers
• Present system designs and analyses to customer and a variety of technical disciplines
• Performs system integration and testing of in-house and subcontractor-supplied ACS and BGS systems
• Analyze post-flight data and redesigns or modifies equipment to improve performance.
• Perform integration tests to validate assemblies
• Contribute to the development of new engineering products or specialty products and develop engineering specifications for applicable projects
• Design, development, manufacturing, refurbishment and evaluation of hardware relevant to ACS Sensors and Pneumatic Attitude Control Systems
• Develop the ability to support the design of software for attitude control systems and associated hardware and support equipment
• Work with data from various attitude sensors including particularly a roll gimbal mounted fiber optic gyro with on-board flight computer
• Coordinate the efforts of multiple engineers, technicians, and fabrication areas
• Test control systems which includes high-pressure hardware and electro-mechanical components relevant to the control payload attitude

Qualifications

Required Qualifications:

• Bachelor’s Degree (BA/BS) in Electrical Engineering; other Engineering or relevant technical degree with related electrical experience
• 5 years engineering experience
• Ability to understand and apply basic kinematics and dynamics
• Aptitude for digital logic and mixed signal design
• Demonstrated C or C# Programming capability
• MATLAB experience
• MS Office experience

 Preferred Qualifications:

• MS or higher in related discipline (may reduce experience requirement).
• 8 or more years relevant experience
• Demonstrated control system capability
• Real-time system development
• GNC related experience

Peraton Overview

Peraton drives missions of consequence spanning the globe and extending to the farthest reaches of the galaxy. As the world’s leading mission capability integrator and transformative enterprise IT provider, we deliver trusted and highly differentiated national security solutions and technologies that keep people safe and secure. Peraton serves as a valued partner to essential government agencies across the intelligence, space, cyber, defense, civilian, health, and state and local markets. Every day, our employees do the can’t be done, solving the most daunting challenges facing our customers.

Target Salary Range

EEO