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