Satellite Navigation Engineer

About Us

Pearl River is an SBA certified HUBZone small disadvantaged business (SDB) providing professional, technical and administrative support services to federal, state and local government agencies.  Through our support and commitment to the HUBZone program, we successfully offer our customers the highest quality of service, while creating opportunities and growth for our employees. 

Description 

Pearl River Technologies is seeking a highly qualified candidate to provide spacecraft navigation expertise in support of NASA’s Flight Dynamics Facility (FDF). This facility provides operational flight dynamics support to 35 satellites in various orbital regimes, evaluates ground- and space-based tracking data, identifies and troubleshoots spacecraft and ground station anomalies, certifies tracking stations, provides launch and early orbit support, and performs a variety of navigation-related analyses. Spacecraft supported include the Hubble Space Telescope (HST), Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO), Magnetospheric Multiscale (MMS) mission, Tracking and Data Relay Satellite System (TDRSS), Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS), as well as the upcoming launch of James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), among many others.

 Specific areas of support will include:

• Performing, evaluating,  and enhancing daily orbit determination and prediction for FDF-supported spacecraft.
• Providing launch and early orbit navigation support.
• Overseeing and conducting navigation-related analyses, introducing new technologies and/or techniques to the FDF.
• Documenting and communicating analysis work via technical conference papers, journal publications, as well as informal forums with the navigation team and associated customers.
• Evaluating current FDF navigation processes to identify possible improvements and promote advancements and enhancements.
• Participating in tracking network validation, calibration, and/or certification of ground stations.
• Acting as spacecraft flight dynamics subject matter expert.

*Some travel may be required.  Occasional off-hours support will be required. 

Required Skills

• Experience in flight dynamics for a variety of orbit regimes
• Thorough understanding of both batch least squares and Kalman filter estimation
• In-depth knowledge of spacecraft navigation and orbital mechanics concepts
• Proven expertise with satellite orbit determination (OD) and OD tools
• Proven expertise with orbit design and modeling tools such as STK
• Experience designing and conducting comprehensive orbit analyses
• Ability to apply problem solving methodologies to complex and ambiguous problems
• Must have excellent interpersonal, written, and oral communication skills.

Desired Skills

• Experience utilizing satellite tracking data, including GPS, radiometric, and/or optimetric measurements
• Familiarization with NASA tracking networks – Space Network, Near Earth Network, and/or Deep Space Network – including operations and tracking observation types
• Knowledge of  spacecraft communications and ground systems architecture
• Experience with the following orbit determination tools: ODTK, GMAT, FreeFlyer, Goddard Trajectory Determination System (GTDS), Monte, and GEODyn
• Experience in a spacecraft operations environment
• Experience developing tools in Python, Perl, and/or Matlab
• Experience with large scale data analytics and application/development of new algorithms for evaluation and automated processing
• Experience with Windows and Linux environments

Required Degree & Experience

• Bachelor’s degree in Aerospace Engineering, Mathematics, Physics, or related discipline.  Master’s degree desired.
• 5 years professional experience. Master’s degree counts as 2 years professional experience.

US citizenship required / EEO/AA / E-Verify Participation

As an Equal Employment Opportunity/Affirmative Action employer, Pearl River Technologies LLC provides equal employment opportunity to all employees and applicants without regard to an individual's protected status, including race/ethnicity, color, national origin, ancestry, religion, creed, age, gender, gender identity/expression, sexual orientation, marital status, parental status, including pregnancy, childbirth, or related conditions, disability, military service, veteran status, genetic information, or any other protected status.