---
title: 'Module Lead, Guidance & Control at Harmattan AI'
canonical: 'https://feeny.ai/job/module-lead-guidance-control-harmattan-ai-paris-ne6eaja28d11'
type: 'job'
last_seen: '2026-09-14'
---

# Module Lead, Guidance & Control at Harmattan AI

- **Company:** [Harmattan AI](https://feeny.ai/companies/harmattan-ai)
- **Location:** Paris, France
- **Employment:** full-time
- **Work type:** onsite
- **Posted:** 2026-09-09
- **Last confirmed live:** 2026-09-14
- **Apply:** https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/harmattan-ai/24de5c26-6039-4b2e-bc46-9f26d27fccd1

## Job description

## About Us

Harmattan AI is a next-generation defense prime building autonomous and scalable defense systems. Following the close of a $200M Series B, valuing the company at $1.4 billion, we are expanding our teams and capabilities to deliver mission-critical systems to allied forces. Our work is guided by clear values: building technologies with real-world impact, pursuing excellence in everything we do, setting ambitious goals, and taking on the hardest technical challenges. We operate in a demanding environment where rigor, ownership, and execution are expected.

## ABOUT THE ROLE

Harmattan AI is pushing the boundaries of high-speed autonomous flight. The Guidance & Control module steers the aircraft, from motion planning and control laws to the flight mode behaviour on top. As its Module Lead, you own the roadmap, the team, and the interfaces to the rest of the company.

## RESPONSIBILITIES

- Guidance & Control Team: Build and lead the team, from the hiring plan and the technical bar to the growth of the engineers on it.
- Module Roadmap: Define and own scope, milestones, priorities and trade-offs, and carry accountability for delivery.
- Guidance & Motion Planning: Set how guidance is designed and verified, from motion planning and trajectory generation to the guidance laws that track the reference, with the flight mode and failsafe behaviour on top.
- Control Laws: Set how control is designed, tuned and verified across the airframe family, from inner rate and attitude loops to outer position loops.
- Interfaces & Requirements: Hold the interfaces to the adjacent modules, consuming aerodynamic models, ego state and the autopilot platform from the teams that own them, and align with the product and systems teams on what the module owes the aircraft.
- Flight Verification: Prove the module's work in flight, with campaigns planned together with the flight test team, and stay close enough to the logs to challenge a diagnosis.

## CANDIDATE REQUIREMENTS

- Educational Background: MSc or PhD in aerospace, controls, robotics or a related field, or equivalent practice.
- Technical Depth: Has shipped guidance or control software on real vehicles, multirotor or fixed wing, and is deep enough to challenge a design review and read a flight log.
- Leadership: Built or led an engineering team, hired and grown engineers, and owned a module or programme against a hard external deadline.
- Professional Attributes:
- Rigorous and hardware honest, sceptical of a result that only exists in simulation.
- Decisive, able to set direction and unblock the team rather than absorb the work.
- Clear communicator, comfortable with engineers and senior stakeholders alike.
- Location & Languages: Based in or willing to relocate to Lausanne, Paris or Zurich. Fluency in English required, French a plus.
- Commitment: 100% dedication to Harmattan AI's mission of providing a defensive edge to allied nations through ethical, high-impact technology.

We look forward to hearing how you can help shape the future of autonomous defense systems at Harmattan AI.

## About Harmattan AI

## Company Overview
- **One-liner**: Harmattan AI builds autonomous defense systems—including strike and surveillance drones—using AI-driven autonomy and real-time intelligence for allied forces.
- **Entity Type**: Private (Series B, unicorn status)
- **Headquarters**: Paris, France
- **Founded**: 2024
- **Founders**: Mouad M’Ghari (CEO & Co‑founder)

## Core Business
- **Primary industry**: Defense & autonomous systems
- **Target customers**: B2G – NATO member states, ministries of defence (UK, France, and others)
- **Mission**: Deliver scalable, sovereign AI capabilities to allied forces by building mission‑ready autonomous systems that respond in real time, adapt under pressure, and deliver an edge in contested environments. [harmattan.ai](https://harmattan.ai/)

## Products & Services
- **Platform Autonomy**: AI‑driven autonomy layer for drones, enabling real‑time decision‑making and adaptation.
- **Mission Orchestration**: Software for coordinating multiple autonomous assets (e.g., collaborative air combat).
- **Precision Strike**: Attritable strike drones with embedded AI for target engagement.
- **VSHORAD (Very Short‑Range Air Defence)**: Counter‑drone interception systems.
- **Persistent ISR (Intelligence, Surveillance, Reconnaissance)**: Autonomous surveillance platforms for continuous battlefield awareness.
- **Electronic Warfare Platforms**: Systems for electronic attack and protection. [harmattan.ai](https://harmattan.ai/)

## Market Standing
- **Valuation**: $1.4 billion (as of January 2026, after Series B). [tech.eu](https://tech.eu/2026/01/12/french-startup-harmattan-ai-hits-unicorn-status-as-it-strikes-deal-with-french-aerospace-group/)
- **Key Metric**: Total funding ~$240 million ($200 M Series B led by Dassault Aviation + over $40 M prior). [tech.eu](https://tech.eu/2026/01/12/french-startup-harmattan-ai-hits-unicorn-status-as-it-strikes-deal-with-french-aerospace-group/)
- **Notable Investors/Partners**: Dassault Aviation (lead investor & strategic partner), multiple NATO allies as customers.
- **Growth Signals**:
  - Achieved unicorn status within two years of founding.
  - Awarded several “programs of record” by UK and French Ministries of Defence. [tech.eu](https://tech.eu/2026/01/12/french-startup-harmattan-ai-hits-unicorn-status-as-it-strikes-deal-with-french-aerospace-group/)
  - Scaling industrial manufacturing of drone interception and electronic warfare platforms.
  - Headcount grew to 131 employees (Built In estimate). [builtin.com](https://builtin.com/company/harmattan-ai)

## Competitive Advantages
- **Two‑layer autonomy model**: Combines platform‑level AI with mission‑orchestration software for coordinated, scalable autonomous forces.
- **Sovereign AI**: Focus on delivering non‑dependent capabilities to allied nations, differentiating from US‑centric primes.
- **Attritable systems**: Cost‑effective, expendable drones that enable mass deployment without prohibitive losses.
- **Speed to relevance**: Claims rapid iteration and deployment cycles, with conflict‑ready production. [harmattan.ai](https://harmattan.ai/)

## Strategic Focus
- Expand product offering into new operational domains (e.g., collaborative air combat with Dassault Aviation).
- Scale industrial manufacturing of drone interception, electronic warfare, and ISR platforms.
- Deepen integration of embedded AI into next‑generation air combat systems (future combat air systems). [tech.eu](https://tech.eu/2026/01/12/french-startup-harmattan-ai-hits-unicorn-status-as-it-strikes-deal-with-french-aerospace-group/)

## Why Work Here
- **Culture**: “Elite builders” who “thrive on complexity, move with urgency, and own their work end to end.” Emphasis on purpose, technical excellence, and real‑world impact. [harmattan.ai](https://harmattan.ai/careers/)
- **Values**: Tackle the hardest problems, build what matters, move at the speed of relevance, and aim to redefine frontiers. [harmattan.ai](https://harmattan.ai/careers/)
- **Work policy**: Hybrid model with a mix of remote and on‑site; many roles are in‑office at locations in Paris, Lausanne, London, Arlington (TX), Wissous, Poland, UAE, and Morocco. [builtin.com](https://builtin.com/company/harmattan-ai)
- **Engineering culture**: Hands‑on development of mission‑critical autonomous systems; strong R&D focus across AI, computer vision, RF hardware, propulsion, and mission planning.
- **Perks**: Not explicitly listed, but the company highlights the opportunity to protect front‑line personnel and shape the future of autonomous defence.

## Sources
1. [harmattan.ai](https://harmattan.ai/)
2. [harmattan.ai/careers](https://harmattan.ai/careers/)
3. [harmattan.ai/open-roles](https://harmattan.ai/open-roles)
4. [builtin.com](https://builtin.com/company/harmattan-ai)
5. [tech.eu](https://tech.eu/2026/01/12/french-startup-harmattan-ai-hits-unicorn-status-as-it-strikes-deal-with-french-aerospace-group/)

## Other roles at Harmattan AI

- [Program Manager Middle East](https://feeny.ai/job/program-manager-middle-east-harmattan-ai-united-arab-emirates-0z7k98ev5h65) — United Arab Emirates
- [VP Production Morocco](https://feeny.ai/job/vp-production-morocco-harmattan-ai-rabat-kfjmdrb7ygma) — Rabat, Morocco
- [Signal Processing Engineer (RF Processing & Analytics)](https://feeny.ai/job/signal-processing-engineer-rf-processing-analytics-harmattan-ai-paris-hjn8mgsqgzcf) — Paris, France
- [Module Lead, Guidance & Control](https://feeny.ai/job/module-lead-guidance-control-harmattan-ai-zurich-4xhs9vv4betd) — Zurich, Switzerland
- [Module Lead, Guidance & Control](https://feeny.ai/job/module-lead-guidance-control-harmattan-ai-lausanne-5z729t1f5em7) — Lausanne, Switzerland
- [Forward Deployed Software Engineer](https://feeny.ai/job/forward-deployed-software-engineer-harmattan-ai-united-arab-emirates-h1ph5ed6wera) — United Arab Emirates
- [Embedded Electrical Engineer - SoM](https://feeny.ai/job/embedded-electrical-engineer-som-harmattan-ai-zurich-nfmnmqmj7qkw) — Zurich, Switzerland
- [Embedded Electrical Engineer - SoM](https://feeny.ai/job/embedded-electrical-engineer-som-harmattan-ai-lausanne-25bs7fgkpqjz) — Lausanne, Switzerland
- [Product Operations Intern](https://feeny.ai/job/product-operations-intern-harmattan-ai-paris-598y5hqzq0v7) — Paris, France
- [Embedded Electrical Engineer - SoM](https://feeny.ai/job/embedded-electrical-engineer-som-harmattan-ai-paris-4kfy8a0s9nsw) — Paris, France