GNC/Autopilot Engineering Manager

You will own the flight control and navigation stack that keeps autonomous platforms stable, predictable, and precise — from first power-on to final approach (GNC = Guidance, Navigation, Control). You're building the control and state-estimation foundation that every other system on the platform depends on, while growing a team of engineers who can own that responsibility with you.

What you'll do

• Lead and grow a fast-expanding team of engineers working on flight control, guidance, and state estimation
• Facilitate and execute the technical direction for the STARK autopilot stack: control theory (PID/LQR/MPC), sensor fusion architecture, state estimation (EKF/UKF), and real-time performance
• Partner with hardware, perception, and systems engineering teams to ensure navigation performance holds end-to-end, not just in isolation
• Own technical roadmap planning for your domain and represent it to your Director and cross-functional stakeholders
• Bring software engineering best practices to the team such as the C4 architecture model, clean code principles and software design patterns
• Drive test and validation strategy, from simulation and HIL testing through live trials
• Drive hiring, mentoring, and career development for your team as well as ways of working together
• Report on technical risk, schedule, and capacity to leadership

What you'll need

• 7+ years of software (robotics) engineering experience in the domain of GNC (guidance, navigation, and control)
• 3+ years in a leadership role (Team Lead, Head of, Engineering Manager, or equivalent) with direct people management experience
• Proven track record of deploying robotics software application into production environment
• Strong knowledge about the GNC domain
• Fluent English; German is a plus

Nice to have

• Proven track record taking autonomous systems with GNSS-denied navigation system from design to production fielded, flight-tested products
• Experience with PX4, ArduPilot, or comparable open-source autopilot stacks
• Background in aerospace, robotics, or MINT programs
• Exposure to systems operating in contested or degraded environments
• Prior experience scaling a technical team in a startup or fast-growing engineering org
• Familiarity with MIL-STD or STANAG-aligned development practices