Senior Guidance Engineer

About Castelion

Castelion is bringing a new approach to defense development and production: one that focuses on short, iterative design cycles, rapid testing in development, and modern commercial manufacturing strategies for production at scale. We're designing, building, and testing next generation long range strike weapons systems to give America and its Allies a definitive edge and deter future conflicts.

Senior Guidance Engineer

We are seeking a Senior Guidance Engineer to develop guidance solutions for Castelion's long-range hypersonic strike vehicles. This role is critical in shaping the flight performance of our hypersonic systems from concept through flight tests and operational deployment. You will work hands-on with multidisciplinary engineering teams to design, analyze, characterize, and validate guidance algorithms in a rapid hardware-driven environment.

Responsibilities

• Lead the design and optimization of hypersonic flight vehicle guidance methods to maximize performance, stability, and maneuverability in atmospheric and space environments
• Conduct trajectory and flight simulations to evaluate guidance system performance, identify improvement opportunities, and validate design decisions
• Analyze and enhance the inertial and active guidance of Castelion's long-range hypersonic systems, ensuring robust performance under variable environmental conditions
• Work closely with teams in avionics, seeker, flight software, and GNC to ensure seamless vehicle integration
• Help define and execute test plans for subscale and full-scale flight tests, translating results into system-level design improvements
• Mentor and guide junior engineers in best practices
• Partner closely with program leadership to make technical trades aligned with mission success

Basic Qualifications

• Bachelors, Masters, or PhD in Aerospace Engineering or related field
• 5+ years of experience in guidance system design, analysis, and validation for high-speed vehicles (missiles, rockets, hypersonic glide vehicles, or maneuvering re-entry systems)
• Demonstrated ability to field guidance systems for DoD or similar programs
• Strong background in trajectory/flight simulation (3DOF and 6DOF) and real-time trajectory generation/optimization methods
• Experience with onboard trajectory generation approaches
• Familiarity with the application of AI/deep learning to trajectory optimization
• Proficiency in flight/trajectory analysis tools such as TAOS, POST, or equivalent
• Strong problem-solving mindset, thriving in a fast-paced, hardware-rich, high flight cadence environment

Why Castelion

• Opportunity to shape the design of cutting-edge high-speed missile and flight systems
• Work alongside a team of A+ players who believe in the mission and want to make a difference
• Be part of a rapidly growing startup where your impact is direct and visible

All employees are granted long-term stock incentives as part of their employment as Castelion. All employees receive access to comprehensive medical, vision, and dental insurance, and the company offers three weeks of paid time off per year.

Leadership Qualities

Bias to Action and Creative Problem Solving. Desire and experience questioning assumptions in ways that lead to break through ideas that are ultimately implemented. Successfully bring in applicable processes/concepts/materials from other industries to achieve efficiency gains. Ability to personally resolve minor issues in development without requiring significant support.

High Commitment, High Initiative. A successful candidate will have a genuine passion for Castelion's mission and consistently look for ways to contribute to the company's technical goals and prevent hardware blockers. Ability to work in a fast paced, autonomously driven, and demanding atmosphere. Strong sense of accountability and integrity.

Clear Communicator. Proactively communicates blockers. Trusted in previous roles to be voice of company with regulators, suppliers, gate keepers and customers. Capable of tactfully managing relationships with stakeholders to achieve company-desired outcomes without compromising relationships. Emails, IMs and verbal interactions are logical, drive clarity, and detailed enough to eliminate ambiguity.

ITAR Requirements:

• To conform to U.S. Government export regulations, applicant must be a (i) U.S. citizen or national, (ii) U.S. lawful, permanent resident (aka green card holder), (iii) Refugee under 8 U.S.C. § 1157, or (iv) Asylee under 8 U.S.C. § 1158, or be eligible to obtain the required authorizations from the U.S. Department of State.

Employment with Castelion is governed on the basis of 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.