Soma Capital Portfolio Jobs

Flight Dynamics & Controls Engineer

Odys Aviation

Odys Aviation

Long Beach, CA, USA
Posted on Friday, March 15, 2024
At Odys, we’re building an advanced vertical takeoff and landing hybrid aircraft for major airlines. This will cut travel time in half on the world’s busiest routes by using city helipads and local airports. More than 40% of all flights worldwide are less than 1,000 miles - let’s skip the airport and make these routes sustainable. Check out our intro video and TechCrunch article for more details.
We’re a team of expert engineers from deep tech and aerospace, working to remove the hassles of flying and reduce CO2 emissions for travelers globally. Previously, our team has built and flown custom drones. We’ve brought multiple automotive platforms into production. We’ve electrified transportation vehicles that magnetically levitate, that roll, that fly. Together, we’ve been learning, developing, building, testing, and preparing for this challenge our entire lives.
Are you passionate about applying your flight dynamics and modeling skills to the solution of novel problems? Can you apply your broad understanding of physics to build models and predict and verify aircraft behavior? Do you want to join a talented team, furthering your engineering abilities and driving innovation at a crucial stage in the development life cycle of our products?
The flight dynamics and controls team is responsible for the design, implementation and validation of our aircraft models and control algorithms. As a flight dynamics and controls engineer you will be the closely working with the aerodynamics, mechanical and testing teams. You will be closely involved in all aspects of the design process, supporting the team with your unique abilities.

Your Responsibilites

  • Develop flight dynamics modeling strategies and methodologies
  • Identify requirements and analyze aerodynamic data to be used in modeling
  • Develop methods for automated model validation and testing
  • Define and quantify model limitations and uncertainties
  • Design and validate navigation, guidance and control algorithms
  • Closely collaborate with aerodynamics, controls and mechanical design teams to rapidly iterate on designs
  • Integrate in house and third-party models of system components into the full aircraft simulation model
  • Support test method and test rig design to acquire experimental data

Your Qualifications

  • Bachelor’s degree (MSc or PhD preferred) in mechanical, electrical, aerospace, or related fields
  • Minimum 2 years of experience in flight dynamics modeling or control systems
  • Strong knowledge of aircraft flight dynamics, stability and controls
  • Strong knowledge of modeling and analyzing complex, nonlinear physical systems, aerodynamics and aircraft flight dynamics
  • Good knowledge of feedback control systems and their design, especially for aircraft
  • Experience with validation of flight dynamics models against experimental and flight test data
  • Excellent skills in MATLAB/Simulink and Excel
  • Able to work with minimal supervision in a fast-paced environment

Your Nice-to-Have Skills

  • Experience with other aircraft modeling and visualization tools (e.g., X-Plane, Flightlab, etc)
  • Experience with aircraft system identification tools (e.g., CIFER, SIDPAC, etc)
  • Experience with prototyping flight computer hardware (e.g. Pixhawk, Embention Veronte, etc)
  • Experience with auto code generation for embedded environments
  • Coding skills (Python, C/C++)
  • Experience with HIL/SIL/MIL
  • Experience with vertical takeoff and landing aircraft