---
title: 'Senior GNC Engineer at Reflect Orbital'
canonical: 'https://feeny.ai/job/senior-gnc-engineer-reflect-orbital-hawthorne-y1v5pbqpazwm'
type: 'job'
last_seen: '2026-09-07'
---

# Senior GNC Engineer at Reflect Orbital

- **Company:** Reflect Orbital
- **Location:** Hawthorne, CA
- **Compensation:** $130k–$220k
- **Employment:** full-time
- **Work type:** onsite
- **Posted:** 2026-08-31
- **Last confirmed live:** 2026-09-07
- **Apply:** https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/reflect-orbital/44e19be0-e293-4fdf-aa8d-bdf55ba06d86

## Job description

At Reflect, you will be expected to move fast, have a lot of ownership and, most importantly, be able to effect change. If this excites you, we are interested in hearing about your best work and accomplishments across any domain and from any points in your life.

## ABOUT THE ROLE

As a Senior GNC Engineer you will directly shape the in-orbit performance of a novel space vehicle. Your work will span vehicle-level dynamics and control, orbit propagation, flight software and HITL testing on our avionics. We're looking for someone who brings "full-stack" GNC development capability to the table.

## RESPONSIBILITIES

- Come up with creative solutions to the unique problems that come with precisely putting a spot of reflected sunlight on the ground from space.
- Design, develop and test our closed-loop guidance, navigation and control for both attitude and orbit.
- Plan trajectories and attitude motion profiles that satisfy our spot serving constraints.
- Develop and own our 6-DOF simulation of vehicle attitude and orbital dynamics, and use it to characterize vehicle performance through Monte Carlo analysis.
- Write GNC algorithms in flight software (C++/Rust) and validate them using our avionics in the loop.
- Drive sensor and actuator selection with our avionics engineers so attitude determination and control are reliable in flight.
- Analyze and plan orbits and constellation design to maximize our overall spot serving capability.

## IDEAL QUALIFICATIONS

- 5+ years of professional GNC engineering experience, ideally on spacecraft or other dynamically controlled vehicles.
- Clear technical ownership of a GNC subsystem that has flown, covering the simulation, the algorithms and the flight software.
- Strong background in modeling physical systems from first principles, including flexible body dynamics, sensors, actuators and the space environment.
- Expertise in state estimation design for attitude and orbit determination, validated in flight.
- Ability to verify and validate GNC flight software in an integrated environment, using HITL testing.
- Experience in guidance, maneuver and constellation design, including orbit selection, coverage and station-keeping.
- Experience in real-time spacecraft operations support, from commissioning through console operations to on-orbit anomaly resolution.
- Fluency in Python, C++ and/or Rust.

Even if you don’t meet 100% of the above qualifications, we are likely still interested in hearing from you. Hiring exceptional individuals is our #1 priority, and we believe that exceptional people often have highly unusual backgrounds.

We are also interested in carving out unique roles for unconventional people that we are excited about working with.

## BENEFITS

Reflect Orbital’s success will hinge on our team, which is why our compensation and benefits plan is designed to reward our employees and support their families as generously as we’re able.

- Broad choice of medical/dental/vision coverage, Reflect covers 100% of each base-policy
- Access to HSA, FSA, and 401K
- Unlimited paid time off
- Healthy lunches provided daily

## EQUAL OPPORTUNITY

Reflect Orbital is an Equal Opportunity Employer; employment with Reflect Orbital is governed on the basis of merit, competence and qualifications and will not be influenced in any manner by race, color, religion, gender, national origin/ethnicity, veteran status, disability status, age, sexual orientation, gender identity, marital status, mental or physical disability or any other legally protected status.

More about Reflect Orbital:

Learn more about our team here. https://www.reflectorbital.com/team

## About Reflect Orbital

## Company Overview
- **One-liner**: Reflect Orbital is building a constellation of orbiting mirrors to deliver concentrated sunlight on demand for energy, agriculture, and nighttime illumination.
- **Entity Type**: Private (Series A)
- **Headquarters**: Hawthorne, California, United States
- **Founded**: 2021
- **Founders**: Not publicly available

## Core Business
- **Primary industries**: Space‑enabled infrastructure, renewable energy, agriculture, defense, urban lighting
- **Target customers**: B2B – solar farm operators, industrial sites, agricultural producers, defense contractors, municipalities, and event organizers
- **Mission**: "Make clean, abundant energy available on demand" and "unlock the sun’s full potential here on Earth"

## Products & Services
- **Energy Service**: Extends solar farm capacity factor by delivering reflected sunlight (adjustable intensity up to 36,000 lux, durations from minutes to hours). Aimed at dispatchable clean power without new ground infrastructure.
- **Lighting Service**: Provides on‑demand, precise illumination for agriculture (extend growing seasons), industrial sites, search & rescue, defense operations, and public experiences. Brightness ranges from 0.1 lux (full‑moon equivalent) to 100 lux (indoor work area) with configurable spot sizes.
- **Platform**: Access via app/website; the light can be turned off instantly and is fully adjustable.

## Market Standing
- **Valuation**: Not disclosed
- **Key Metric**: Total funding – $26.5M, with a $20M Series A raised approximately one year ago
- **Notable Investors**: Undisclosed (backed by "the best" per careers page)
- **Growth Signals**: Founded in 2021, raised significant Series A; plans to deploy initial 2 satellites for testing in 2026, scaling to 36 satellites by 2028 and eventually a constellation of 50k+ satellites by 2035.

## Competitive Advantages
- **Space‑based mirrors** – no ground infrastructure required, can illuminate any precise area on Earth on demand
- **Instant on/off** – light can be shut off quickly, preventing spillover and avoiding sensitive areas (e.g., observatories)
- **Adjustable intensity** – from moonlight to bright daylight, configurable via software
- **Safety design** – light cannot start fires or harm eyes; kept within requested service area
- **Dispatchability** – enables solar farms to generate power after sunset, improving capacity factor without land or storage

## Strategic Focus
- **Near‑term** (2026‑2028): Launch first test satellites, prove Energy Service for solar farms and Lighting Service for early adopters
- **Medium‑term** (2028‑2030): Scale constellation to hundreds of satellites, expand into agriculture, industrial, and defense markets
- **Long‑term** (2030‑2035): Reach full constellation of thousands of satellites, replace streetlights, reduce light pollution, and provide uninterrupted solar power globally

## Why Work Here
- **Culture**: Highly technical, ambitious, and fast‑paced environment. Described as solving "a problem most assume is impossible at planetary scale" with "extreme ownership, moving fast and learning and iterating in reality."
- **Work mode**: Hardware‑focused company located in Hawthorne, CA – likely on‑site; remote/hybrid policy not specified
- **Perks**: Not explicitly listed, but emphasis on working with top talent on groundbreaking technology with a clear, mission‑driven impact
- **Open roles**: Listed on [Ashby careers page](https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/reflect-orbital) across engineering, science, and operations functions

## Sources
1. [reflectorbital.com](https://www.reflectorbital.com/)
2. [reflectorbital.com/careers](https://www.reflectorbital.com/careers)
3. [cbinsights.com](https://www.cbinsights.com/company/reflect-orbital)
4. [linkedin.com](https://www.linkedin.com/company/reflectorbital)
5. [jobs.ashbyhq.com](https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/reflect-orbital)

## Other roles at Reflect Orbital

- [Electrical Engineering Intern](https://feeny.ai/job/electrical-engineering-intern-reflect-orbital-hawthorne-322vgde961hb) — Hawthorne, CA
- [Avionics Engineering Intern](https://feeny.ai/job/avionics-engineering-intern-reflect-orbital-hawthorne-wkema9kktx4m) — Hawthorne, CA
- [Embedded Firmware Engineering Intern](https://feeny.ai/job/embedded-firmware-engineering-intern-reflect-orbital-hawthorne-zv97y612kwr3) — Hawthorne, CA
- [Flight Software Engineering Intern](https://feeny.ai/job/flight-software-engineering-intern-reflect-orbital-hawthorne-fx22t5mdtqqz) — Hawthorne, CA
- [GNC Engineering Intern](https://feeny.ai/job/gnc-engineering-intern-reflect-orbital-hawthorne-mnqg2k3ptcj6) — Hawthorne, CA
- [Mechanical Engineering Intern](https://feeny.ai/job/mechanical-engineering-intern-reflect-orbital-hawthorne-y6s1grc6ggf3) — Hawthorne, CA
- [Thermal Engineering Intern](https://feeny.ai/job/thermal-engineering-intern-reflect-orbital-hawthorne-rh7x15z2j0n8) — Hawthorne, CA
- [Principal GNC Engineer](https://feeny.ai/job/principal-gnc-engineer-reflect-orbital-hawthorne-qcxe7s1zw44v) — Hawthorne, CA
- [Senior Ground Software Engineer](https://feeny.ai/job/senior-ground-software-engineer-reflect-orbital-hawthorne-r11tr118bgmw) — Hawthorne, CA
- [Principal Ground Software Engineer](https://feeny.ai/job/principal-ground-software-engineer-reflect-orbital-hawthorne-m7a5wykrj860) — Hawthorne, CA