About this role
As the Senior Optical Navigation (OpNav) Responsible Engineer at Impulse Space, you will own the terrain-relative navigation (TRN) system that brings our lunar lander from low lunar orbit to a precise, safe touchdown. You will be the single technical owner and product owner for TRN: you'll set the requirements, architecture, development roadmap and verification strategy, and you'll pace the program so the capability is ready when the vehicle is. You will work closely with GNC, flight software, avionics, mission design, and test to turn a lunar landing mission into a navigation system that is defined, built, verified, and flown.
Own the TRN system end to end: concept of operations, requirements, architecture, and the interfaces Turn mission and landing needs into flowed-down navigation requirements and error budgets As product owner for TRN: maintain the technical roadmap, prioritized backlog, and development milestones, aligning with lander integration, test, and mission schedules Coordinate across multiple teams to achieve system-level success Lead make/buy and sensor trades for descent navigation: cameras, compute, and more Define the onboard map and reference-data pipeline Lead and define the TRN verification strategy across analysis, synthetic-image simulation, software-in-the-loop (SIL) and hardware-in-the-loop (HIL) testing with image injection, Monte Carlo campaigns, and field or flight testing Define TRN fault detection, health monitoring, and fallback modes with GNC and autonomy Represent TRN in design reviews and risk reviews. Communicate status, trades, and risk to engineering and leadership Support integration, test campaigns, and mission operations through descent and landing