Pivotal is the leader in the emerging market of electric Vertical Takeoff and Landing (eVTOL) aircraft. We design, develop, and manufacture light eVTOL aircraft and are renowned for the BlackFly aircraft the world's first light eVTOL to fly manned missions and enter the consumer market. Efficient, compact, and simple, Pivotal aircraft are designed for a wide range of consumer, public service, and defense applications. Our distinctive tilt-aircraft architecture and scalable platform have been flying for over 10 years. Last year we announced our next-generation aircraft, the Helix, which is rapidly progressing toward general release and scalable production in 2026. Mobility is one of the most highly-valued areas of modern technology investments. This is the right company, in the right space, the right strategy, at the right time. If you are ready for adventure, we invite you to join our amazing team and grow with us.

Applicants must be eligible for employment in the United States and willing to work onsite at our HQ office in Palo Alto, CA. Pivotal offers a comprehensive benefits package, including medical, dental, vision, and 401k plans. Pivotal is an Equal Opportunity Employer. Pivotal does not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, color, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, age, non-disqualifying physical or mental disability, national origin, veteran status or any other basis covered by appropriate law. All employment is decided on the basis of qualifications, merit, and business need.

Responsibilities

Control Law Analysis & Tuning

• Analyze existing control laws against stability and performance criteria such as gain and phase margins, bandwidth, disturbance rejection, and command tracking.
• Tune control law gains and parameters with CONDUIT to meet these criteria across the flight envelope.
• Assess how actuator and sensor dynamics, time delays, and saturation affect control system stability and performance.
• Update control law gains and parameters in our MATLAB and Simulink models and support their release into flight software.

Simulation & Verification

• Run Monte Carlo studies in our existing simulation environment that vary aircraft parameters, disturbances, and failures to evaluate control law robustness.
• Help identify worst-case conditions and failure scenarios for simulation-based verification, and run and analyze those cases.
• Set up and improve automated integration tests that simulate complete flight missions and check the results against requirements.

Flight Test & Data Analysis

• Support and analyze flight tests, comparing flight data with simulation predictions to assess control performance and refine tuning.
• Document analyses, tuning changes, and test results to support verification activities.

Education

• Bachelor’s degree in Aerospace Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Electrical Engineering, or a related technical field.

Experience

• 2+ years of industry experience in GNC or flight controls, or a Master’s or PhD with research focused on control systems or flight dynamics.
• Strong foundation in linear control theory, including transfer functions, state-space models, and frequency-domain analysis such as Bode and Nichols plots and stability margins.
• Solid understanding of aircraft flight dynamics, including equations of motion, linearization, and dynamic stability modes.
• Hands-on experience analyzing and tuning feedback control systems, such as cascaded PID loops, on hardware or in high-fidelity simulation, whether through industry, research, student teams, or personal projects.
• Experience using simulation to evaluate control system performance, including Monte Carlo or parametric studies.
• Proficiency in MATLAB and Simulink for control design, modeling, and simulation.
• Proficiency in Python or MATLAB for analyzing test and flight data.
• Proficiency in C or C++ for writing application-level code.
• Strong analytical, debugging, and communication skills, and the ability to work in a fast-paced, collaborative environment.

Preferred Qualifications

• Master’s degree or PhD in Aerospace or Mechanical Engineering or a related field, with a focus on flight controls or flight dynamics.
• Experience using CONDUIT for control system analysis and optimization.
• Familiarity with explicit model-following, dynamic inversion, or other control architectures used in safety-critical aviation.
• Familiarity with handling qualities and flight control specifications such as ADS-33, MIL-STD-1797, and MIL-DTL-9490.
• Experience developing flight controls for VTOL aircraft, multicopters, rotorcraft, or eVTOL platforms.
• Experience with Git, continuous integration, and agile development workflows, including automated simulation-based regression testing.
• Experience using AI-assisted development tools, such as Claude, to speed up algorithm development, coding, and data analysis.
• Experience with fault detection, or with analyzing control system behavior under failure scenarios such as motor or actuator failures.
• Experience with frequency-domain system identification using CIFER or similar tools.
• Experience with hardware-in-the-loop testing and supporting flight test campaigns.
• Interest in aviation, RC aircraft, or drones.

Attributes aligned with Core Values