Senior Guidance, Navigation and Control Engineer

ABOUT EDGE

At EDGE bold ideas are engineered into technologies that protect, improve and save lives.

Headquartered in the United Arab Emirates, EDGE is a leading advanced technology group working at the forefront of defence and emerging technologies. Spanning more than 35 specialised companies and multiple centres of excellence, we are purpose-built to move fast. Free from heavy legacy processes, we give our people the autonomy, accountability, and agility to bring breakthrough technologies from concept to reality.

Based in Abu Dhabi, a globally connected hub at the crossroads of Europe, Asia, Africa, and the Middle East, EDGE is home to a truly multicultural community where bold ideas thrive, and the future is shaped.

Together, we are shaping the future.

ABOUT THE ROLE

We are looking for a Senior Engineer - Guidance, Navigation & Control (GNC) to join our aerospace engineering team and take technical ownership of guidance and flight-control solutions for advanced aerospace vehicles.

The role covers the full GNC lifecycle, from requirements definition, modelling and control-law design through simulation, integration, verification, HIL and flight-test support. You will work closely with multidisciplinary teams across flight dynamics, aerodynamics, navigation, avionics, software, systems, safety and flight test.

This is a hands-on technical leadership role for an engineer who can independently solve complex control problems, make sound engineering trade-offs, and mentor other engineers.

RESPONSIBILITIES

• Develop and validate guidance, control laws, autopilot functions and control-allocation algorithms for aerospace vehicles.
• Derive GNC requirements from aircraft-level, mission, safety, performance and flying-quality requirements.
• Design longitudinal, lateral-directional and coupled-axis control laws, including inner/outer loops, gain scheduling, command shaping and mode management.
• Develop guidance algorithms and ensure commands are dynamically feasible within vehicle, actuator and safety limits.
• Develop and analyse trim models, linear/state-space models, nonlinear 6-DOF models and uncertainty models.
• Perform stability, robustness, modal, time-domain and frequency-domain analysis.
• Conduct Monte Carlo, worst-case, sensitivity and failure-case analyses.
• Assess the impact of actuator/sensor dynamics, delays, filtering, saturation, rate limits, computational constraints and uncertainties.
• Support SIL, PIL, HIL, pilot-in-the-loop and flight-test activities as applicable.
• Investigate control-system issues including oscillations, instability, saturation, mode-transition problems and simulation/flight-test discrepancies.
• Support ground and flight-test planning, execution and analysis.
• Prepare technical requirements, design descriptions, analysis and verification reports, release documentation and limitation statements.
• Support major aerospace design and readiness reviews including SRR, PDR, CDR, TRR and flight-readiness reviews.
• Mentor engineers and contribute to reusable GNC architectures, algorithms and verification methods.

BASIC QUALIFICATIONS

• Bachelor's degree in Aerospace, Aeronautical, Electrical, Mechanical, Control, Robotics, Applied Mathematics or a closely related discipline.
• 10+ years of relevant experience in aerospace or comparable safety-critical control-system development.
• Demonstrated hands-on experience designing and validating control laws, guidance functions, autopilot systems or control-allocation solutions for aircraft, UAVs, missiles, spacecraft or comparable dynamic systems.
• Strong understanding of rigid-body dynamics, state-space modelling, linearization, trimming, modal analysis and frequency-domain analysis.
• Strong knowledge of classical and modern control-design techniques.
• Experience with gain scheduling, nonlinear simulation, robustness analysis and uncertainty assessment.
• Experience with MATLAB/Simulink and Python, C or C++.
• Experience with verification and validation through simulation and/or SIL, PIL, HIL or flight testing.
• Understanding of embedded software, real-time systems, configuration management and requirements management.
• Strong technical communication skills with professional proficiency in English

PREFERRED QUALIFICATIONS

• Master's degree or PhD in Flight Control, Guidance & Control, Aerospace Engineering, Autonomous Systems, Robotics or a related field.
• Experience with advanced control techniques including LQR/LQG, H∞/μ-analysis, dynamic/nonlinear inversion, MPC, adaptive or sliding-mode control.
• Experience with control allocation, effector management, envelope protection, fault handling and degraded-mode/reconfiguration strategies.
• Strong experience with 6-DOF nonlinear simulation, Monte Carlo, worst-case and sensitivity analysis.
• Experience with flight-test planning, execution, data analysis and correlation.
• Experience with airworthiness, military/defence standards, safety-critical development and software-assurance processes.
• Experience supporting aerospace lifecycle reviews and control-law release activities.
• Experience with unconventional or highly manoeuvrable aerospace vehicles, UAV/UAS, missiles or autonomous platforms.

WHY CHOOSE EDGE

Launched in November 2019, the UAE's EDGE is one of the world's leading advanced technology groups, established to develop agile, bold and disruptive solutions for defence and beyond, and to be a catalyst for change and transformation. It is dedicated to bringing breakthrough innovations, products, and services to market with greater speed and efficiency, to position the UAE as a leading global hub for future industries, and to creating clear paths within the sector for the next generation of highly skilled talent to thrive.

At EDGE, the real investment goes beyond compensation. Through our dedicated learning academy and digital learning platforms, employees have access to extensive opportunities to develop new skills, deepen their expertise, and advance their careers. Combined with the freedom to innovate, strong career support, and the opportunity to collaborate with world-class talent from across the globe, EDGE is a place where you can continue to grow, keep learning, and turn ambitious ideas into meaningful outcomes.

Working at EDGE also comes with a package that genuinely reflects how much we value our people. Salaries are highly competitive and tax-free and, depending on your role and seniority, benefits can include family visas, annual flight tickets, medical insurance for you and your dependents, and education allowances for your children.

CANDIDATE PRIVACY & EQUAL OPPORTUNITY STATEMENT

If you feel your skills, experience and potential are a strong match for a role, we encourage you to apply even if you don’t meet every requirement. We are genuinely interested in what you can bring to EDGE.

Any information you share as part of your EDGE candidate profile or job application will be handled in accordance with applicable data protection and privacy regulations.

EDGE is an equal opportunity employer committed to building a diverse, inclusive, and high-performing workforce. We believe every individual deserves to be treated with fairness, respect and dignity, and our employment decisions reflect that. We do not discriminate based on race, colour, nationality, ethnicity, religion, gender, marital status, age, disability, pregnancy or parental status, or any other characteristic protected by applicable law.

As a global organisation, effective collaboration across international teams is central to how we work, so English proficiency is required for all roles unless otherwise stated in the job posting.

Please note that EDGE does not accept unsolicited resumes from recruitment agencies. Any resumes in the absence of a formally executed agreement in place will be deemed the property of EDGE, and no placement fees or compensation will be payable in respect of such submissions.