Flight Physics & Flight Controls Engineer

Flight Physics & Flight Controls Engineer

Alpine Eagle

Karlsruhe or Munich, Germany

How you will make an impact:

• Design and implement flight control laws (attitude, rate, position, and advanced control modes);
• Model aircraft dynamics including aerodynamics, propulsion, and actuator behavior;
• Maximize flight performance through controller tuning and stability analysis;
• Build high-fidelity simulations (SITL/HITL) and validate them against flight test data;
• Analyze real flight logs to identify instability, coupling effects, and performance limitations;
• Bridge simulation and reality by improving model accuracy and parameter identification;
• Collaborate with navigation, perception, and hardware teams to ensure safe and predictable flight behavior;
• Contribute to flight test campaigns and iterate quickly from experimental results.

What you need to be successful:

• Strong background in flight mechanics, dynamics, and control theory;
• Experience with classical and modern control methods (PID, LQR, MPC, observers, filtering);
• Ability to analyze stability and performance in nonlinear systems;
• Degree (MSc/PhD preferred) in Aerospace Engineering, Robotics, Control Engineering, or related field;
• Experience working with flight control firmware (PX4/Ardupilot or similar);
• Comfortable working with Python-based modeling tools;
• Practical mindset — capable of turning theory into working controllers on real aircraft;
• Enjoy debugging physical systems and validating them experimentally.