Job offer
Your algorithms will control satellites in orbit.
As a Control Engineer at VZLU Aerospace's Space Division, you will build algorithms, models and analyses for Attitude and Orbit Control Systems (AOCS). You will be working on real missions (VZLUGEM, AMBIC, QUVIK), commercial projects and products, and R&D that advances our space systems capabilities.
VZLU is one of the few organizations worldwide with comprehensive AOCS capabilities, covering the full lifecycle from algorithms to flight operations. Beyond AOCS, our Space Division integrates complete satellites end to end – from system design and assembly through testing to in-orbit operations.
Your Key Responsibilities
You will contribute across the full development lifecycle of satellite control systems, initially working with experienced engineers and taking on greater technical ownership as your expertise grows:
- Translate mission needs into measurable AOCS requirements and performance targets
- Design attitude and orbit control functions, including guidance, navigation, state estimation, and fault management
- Develop dynamic models, simulations, and control algorithms
- Assess performance through Monte Carlo campaigns and sensitivity analyses
- Prototype algorithms and support their implementation in flight software
- Define verification scenarios and support SIL, PIL, and HIL testing
- Analyse flight telemetry, investigate anomalies, and document reusable designs and methods
You will build systems designed to extend across missions. Your foundation work today becomes the platform for tomorrow's capabilities. Expect to learn constantly, teach others, and see your algorithms operate in space.
Required Qualifications
- University degree in control engineering, cybernetics, aerospace engineering, electrical engineering, physics, applied mathematics, or a related field
- Understanding of dynamic systems, feedback control, and state estimation
- Knowledge of rigid-body dynamics and coordinate transformations
- Experience in modelling, simulating, or testing real-world control systems
- Ability to analyse engineering problems and implement algorithms in at least one programming language
- Practical experience from work, university, research, internships, or personal projects, with motivation to grow in a multidisciplinary team
- English at B2 level or higher
Preferred Qualifications
- Python, including NumPy or SciPy, or willingness to learn
- MATLAB/Simulink or similar modelling and simulation tools
- Strong foundations in linear algebra, numerical methods, mechanics, or dynamics
- Monte Carlo simulation, sensitivity analysis, or fault detection and recovery
- Hardware or HIL testing experience
- Experience in spacecraft AOCS or another mission-critical control domain; Rust is an advantage
What We Look For
We are building a team for complex, mission-critical work. You will thrive here if you:
- Embrace hard problems: Satellite control systems demand precision
- Balance independence with teamwork: Take responsibility for your own work while integrating tightly with software, systems, electronics, and test engineers
- Think in systems: Understand how individual algorithms, sensors, actuators, software, and spacecraft dynamics work together
- Connect theory with reality: Recognise that a mathematically elegant solution must also work with real hardware, limited resources, disturbances, uncertainties, and operational constraints
- Learn continuously: Be comfortable working with unfamiliar problems and developing new expertise along the way
- Find meaning in the mission: Contribute to Czech aerospace capability and European space independence
If you are ready for control systems where precision matters and the opportunity to see your algorithms control satellites excites you, let's talk.
What We Offer
- Real missions: Contribute to national satellites launching in the coming years, not just prototypes
- Small team, big impact: Join a small, focused team where your work directly determines mission success
- Rare expertise: Work on complete AOCS systems from algorithms through flight operations – few teams globally do this end-to-end
- Build capability: Help establish Czech space systems expertise from the ground up
- Possibility of further qualification: Grow through structured professional development
- Benefits: 5 weeks of vacation, meal allowance, allowance for supplementary pension insurance, allowance for leisure activities
The work location is Prague, Czech Republic.