Geo-Physical Navigation Engineer

Serve as a geo-physical navigation engineer for the Leidos Innovation Center (LInC) in Huntsville, AL. Our team's mission is to: (1) develop and demonstrate new alternative navigation technologies to meet urgent military operational needs to operate in GPS-challenged environments, and (2) rapidly transition this technology to operational platforms to outpace the adversary threats currently being faced in the field. This role will focus on alternative navigation systems relying on magnetic and gravity fields as well as other geo-physical sources. Project involve small teams of engineers working together in spiral or agile development environments to meet aggressive customer schedules aimed at near-term field demonstrations of emerging capabilities. Our core competencies include sensor fusion, computer vision, HW/SW integration, and machine learning. Typical customers include Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), Army Combat Capabilities Development Command (CCDC) engineering centers, Office of Naval Research (ONR), and Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL). We are looking for a candidate who is interested in performing challenging technical work, leading small teams of engineers, and supporting new business activities.

Primary Responsibilities

• Develop mathematical algorithms for alternative navigation software, with an emphasis on synthetic aperture radar processing on aircraft and naval platforms
• Develop signal processing algorithms to condition and correlate sensor measurements for optimal map matching against pre-existing geophysical databases. Techniques include classical signal processing and optimal estimation algorithms as well as deep learning based approaches.
• Develop high order mathematical sensor errors models and implement navigation filters including Extended Kalman Filters and Incremental Batch Filters.
• Lead development and integration with physics-based navigation simulations, including navigation error models and vehicle platform six-degree-of-freedom (6DOF) models
• Perform covariance analyses for integrated alternative navigation systems.
• Perform solution integration with COTS drone autopilot systems (PX4 and ArduPilot)
• Support hardware/software integration and field testing of new prototype navigation systems
• Serve as technical lead for navigation development tasks with teams of 4 to 6 junior engineers.
• Lead presentations to senior government and commercial clients for both status on current projects as well as presenting concepts for new business opportunities

Basic Qualifications

• Bachelor's Degree in advanced technical field (Electrical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Aerospace Engineering, Computer Science, or equivalent) with 8+ years or Masters with 6+ years of prior relevant experience, May possess a Doctorate in technical domain.
• Programming experience with Matlab, Python, Julia, and/or C/C++
• Demonstrated leadership experience on navigation technology development projects for military or commercial customers
• Strong customer interaction skills with potential to immediately lead research and development projects

Preferred Qualifications

• PhD in advanced technical field (Electrical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Aerospace Engineering, Computer Science, or equivalent) with 4+ years of experience performing and leading navigation development work.
• Experience leading a project that resulted in a fielded navigation technology
• Experience presenting to senior government and military officials (O-6 and above)
• Experience leading a successful competitive technical proposal that resulted in new work for previous company, particularly in support of DARPA or a military research laboratory
• Existing security clearance at Secret level or above
• Experience with magnetic and gravity navigation system development

LInC

Come break things (in a good way). Then build them smarter.

We're the tech company everyone calls when things get weird. We don't wear capes (they're a safety hazard), but we do solve high-stakes problems with code, caffeine, and a healthy disregard for "how it's always been done."

Original Posting:
August 4, 2025
For U.S. Positions: While subject to change based on business needs, Leidos reasonably anticipates that this job requisition will remain open for at least 3 days with an anticipated close date of no earlier than 3 days after the original posting date as listed above.

Pay Range:
Pay Range $104,650.00 - $189,175.00

The Leidos pay range for this job level is a general guideline only and not a guarantee of compensation or salary. Additional factors considered in extending an offer include (but are not limited to) responsibilities of the job, education, experience, knowledge, skills, and abilities, as well as internal equity, alignment with market data, applicable bargaining agreement (if any), or other law.