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Staff Engineer, Flight Controls

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Merlin Labs

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Location:
United States , Boston

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Contract Type:
Not provided

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Salary:

Not provided

Job Description:

Merlin is a venture backed aerospace startup building a non-human pilot to enable both reduced crew and uncrewed flight. Backed by some of the world’s leading investors, Merlin is scaling alongside our customers to begin leveraging autonomy today to solve some of aviation’s biggest challenges. You are an experienced flight controls engineer who wants to contribute to making airplanes that fly themselves. You are familiar with fixed wing aircraft and the classical and modern methods used to control them automatically. You know how to use industry standard tools for this work, and you are excited to work on applying them to a new and novel application.

Job Responsibility:

  • Design and implement flight controls for our aircraft autonomy system
  • Write requirements for high level automation functions and low level flight control
  • Help create and use the simulation tools needed for development and testing including Simulink control law modeling, analysis using MATLAB and Python
  • Participate in flight testing to verify control law performance on multiple aircraft types
  • Write, test, and document Simulink control law models according to Merlin’s development standards, and participate in certification activities
  • Collaborate across Merlin to develop novel, certifiable systems to solve the toughest problems in aviation and autonomy

Requirements:

  • 15 + years of experience developing control systems for fixed wing aircraft, with demonstrated understanding of fixed wing aircraft dynamics, classical and modern control design / analysis
  • Experience decomposing systems requirements into high level requirements for both outer loop and inner loop control design
  • Experience working in Model Based Development and certification of flight control systems, including proficiency in MATLAB/Simulink or another model-based development toolset
  • Experience designing, implementing, and testing software for real-time systems
  • Experience developing certified software under RTCA DO-178
  • BS in Aerospace/Mechanical/Electrical Engineering

Nice to have:

  • MS/PhD in Aerospace Engineering and/or Controls
  • Experience developing aircraft simulations using system identification of flight test data to facilitate the rapid design and testing of flight control systems
  • Experience analyzing certification guidance materials for impact on automatic control system design
  • Flight test experience writing test cards to validate control system performance and perform failure testing
  • Pilots license
  • Proficiency in C/C++ or Python
What we offer:
  • catered lunches
  • snacks
  • beverages
  • health
  • dental
  • life
  • unlimited vacation
  • 401k with match

Additional Information:

Job Posted:
December 10, 2025

Employment Type:
Fulltime
Work Type:
On-site work
Job Link Share:

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