About Careertakes

👉 Important disclosure: Careertakes is a third-party recruiting platform supporting this hiring process. If selected, you will be employed directly by our client, Space exploration & aerospace engineering.

Applicants for this role may also receive access to additional matched opportunities through the Careertakes platform.

---

Position Overview

Confidential Client is seeking an Orbit Determination (OD) and Navigation Engineer at Level I (Associate) or Level II (Professional) to join their orbit determination and navigation team. This role is based in Houston, TX with remote-work flexibility for eligible U.S. locations. You will work on trajectory reconstruction, estimation runs, tracking-data assessment, and navigation product delivery that support mission operations and maneuver design for deep-space and cislunar missions.

---

Key Responsibilities

• Support daily orbit determination solutions, trajectory reconstructions, covariance analyses, and tracking-data quality assessments.
• Produce trajectory updates to support maneuver design, reference trajectories, and science observations.
• Prepare tracking-data, set up runs, review residuals, generate navigation products, and perform basic analyses under guidance.
• Verify inputs (units, coordinate frames, time systems), outputs, and solution reasonableness.
• Follow established coding, configuration, documentation, and quality practices when using OD software and scripts.
• Support planning activities: effort estimates, feasibility studies, testing, and documentation.
• Follow directions, meet schedules, resolve basic issues, and escalate when needed.

Additional responsibilities for Level II candidates:

• Independently configure and execute routine OD analyses and generate navigation products using approved tools.
• Assess residuals and covariance outputs, evaluate solution behavior, and validate results.
• Plan assigned analyses, identify data and resource needs, estimate effort, and coordinate schedules.
• Troubleshoot more complex analysis issues and develop/maintain OD scripts and workflows.
• Prepare technical reports and communicate findings to mission teams and customers.

---

Minimum Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in Aerospace Engineering, Mathematics, Physics, or a related discipline.
• GPA of 3.5 or higher on a 4.0 scale.
• U.S. citizenship (required).
• Foundational knowledge of astrodynamics, orbit determination, estimation, guidance, filtering theory, or flight-path control — demonstrated via coursework, research, internships, or projects.
• Clear technical writing and verbal communication skills, attention to detail, and ability to collaborate with engineering and mission-operations teams.
• Working knowledge of Python and ability to use established analysis scripts, perform simple updates, and follow software development/configuration practices under guidance.
• Foundational awareness of aerospace quality standards, regulations, and safety requirements relevant to navigation work.

Additional Level II qualifications:

• Demonstrated ability to independently execute routine OD analyses, including estimation-run setup, tracking-data selection, residual review, and covariance assessment.
• Experience troubleshooting analysis issues, prioritizing work to meet deadlines, and escalating when deeper investigation is required.
• Experience developing, modifying, and maintaining analysis scripts and software workflows; familiarity with version control and basic testing/configuration practices.
• Working knowledge of interplanetary navigation concepts and ability to prepare technical reports for internal and external stakeholders.

---

Preferred Qualifications

• Master’s degree in Aerospace Engineering, Mathematics, Physics, or related discipline.
• Coursework, research, or experience in two or more of: statistical orbit determination, estimation theory, astrodynamics, statistics, linear control theory, or Kalman filtering.
• Familiarity with deep-space mission operations, deep-space OD processes, tracking data types, optical navigation image processing, or flight-path control.
• Experience on macOS or Linux and knowledge of additional languages such as C/C++, MATLAB, Fortran, or Perl.

---

Other Requirements

• Availability to travel and to work extended hours for team meetings and operations support as needed.
• Willingness to cross-train across deep-space navigation disciplines to support a multi-mission workforce.

---

Compensation (Estimated)

• Estimated annual compensation: $100,523 (reported estimate). Exact pay and benefits will be determined by Confidential Client and will depend on experience, role level (I or II), and other factors.

---

Why Apply

• Work on challenging deep-space and cislunar navigation problems.
• Contribute to mission-critical navigation products used in maneuver design and science operations.
• Collaborate with multi-disciplinary mission teams and subject-matter experts.
• Opportunities for technical growth, cross-training, and involvement in high-profile space missions.

---

Equal Opportunity & Hiring Transparency

Careertakes and our client are Equal Opportunity Employers committed to building a diverse and inclusive workforce. We prohibit discrimination or harassment of any kind. To support a fair and efficient hiring process, AI tools may be used to assist with application review or resume screening. These tools do not replace human decision-making. Final hiring decisions are made by people.

If you have questions about how your data is used, please contact us directly.