GNC & Autonomy Engineer

Mainstream Engineering Corporation; Town of Florida (NY); On-site; USD 120,000 - 180,000; Full time

Job summary

Mainstream Engineering Corporation seeks a Senior GNC & Autonomy Engineer to build a new autonomous-systems portfolio for military, governmental, and commercial customers. You’ll own guidance, navigation, control, state estimation, perception, and ML methods, and write proposals to win programs.

This role pairs with a companion robotics posting for team-building from day one. You will have near-complete autonomy to define your research vector within an established R&D firm, with proposal support

Qualifications

• Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering, Aerospace Engineering, or Electrical Engineering.
• GPA of 3.3+ across all completed degrees.
• Hands-on experience developing and testing control algorithms, state estimation, or ML/CV methods on real systems.

Responsibilities

• Develop guidance, navigation, and control algorithms for autonomous systems (undersea/ground vehicles and other platforms).
• Design state estimation, sensor fusion, and localization/mapping methods.
• Develop computer vision and ML methods for perception and autonomous decision-making.
• Transition algorithms from theory to simulation to hardware-in-the-loop to field testing.
• Write technical proposals to government and private customers to fund your research vector.
• Lead internal IRAD efforts to mature new capabilities ahead of customer need.
• Collaborate with robotics and mechanical engineers on sensor selection and integration.
• Interface with government and commercial customers to understand requirements.

Skills

Control algorithms

State estimation

Machine learning / CV

Python

C++

MATLAB

Education

Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering, Aerospace Engineering, or Electrical Engineering

GPA 3.3+ across all degrees

Tools

Python

MATLAB

C++

Job description

We're looking for a Senior GNC & Autonomy Engineer to help us build out a new portfolio in autonomous systems for our military, governmental, and commercial customers. In this role, you'll own the "brains" of autonomous systems: guidance, navigation, and control; state estimation; perception and computer vision; and machine learning methods. This isn't a mature product line with an established roadmap; you'll be building it. Your creativity and research interests will largely determine what we build next, and you'll be responsible for writing the proposals and winning the programs that fund it. We're hiring for this role alongside a companion Sr. Robotics Engineer posting covering the other half of this portfolio - feel free to apply to either based on your strengths, or apply together with a research partner as a pair if you'd like to build this out as a team from day one.

This is a unique opportunity with near-complete autonomy to build out your own research vector, backed by an established R&D firm with the infrastructure, proposal support, and customer relationships already in place. While this group is being built out, you'll also support our existing mechanical design, thermal, and other funded programs as needed, until there's steady work while you grow the pipeline in your own area. You'll also be expected to help train and mentor junior engineers.

What You'll Do

• Develop guidance, navigation, and control algorithms for autonomous systems - undersea and ground-based vehicles, and other autonomously-operating platforms
• Design and implement state estimation, sensor fusion, and localization/mapping methods
• Develop computer vision and machine learning methods for perception and autonomous decision-making
• Take algorithms from theory to simulation to hardware-in-the-loop to field testing
• Write technical proposals to both government and private customers to define and win the work that funds your research vector
• Propose and lead internal IRAD efforts to mature new capabilities ahead of customer need
• Collaborate closely with our robotics and mechanical engineers on sensor selection and system-level integration
• Interface directly with government and commercial customers to understand requirements and demonstrate capability
• Support existing mechanical design, thermal, and other funded programs as needed, particularly while your own portfolio ramps up
• Help train and mentor junior engineers

What We're Looking For

Required

• Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering, Aerospace Engineering, Electrical Engineering, or a related field, with a focus on controls, robotics, or machine learning (exceptional M.S. candidates with a strong research background or relevant industry experience will also be considered)
• Minimum of a 3.3 GPA for all completed degrees
• Demonstrated, hands‑on experience developing and testing control algorithms, state estimation, or ML/CV methods on real systems
• Proficiency in relevant programming languages (e.g., Python, C++, MATLAB)
• U.S. Citizenship required due to ITAR requirements, and ability to obtain a security clearance as required in the future
• Willingness to mentor junior engineers and flex across adjacent mechanical engineering work while the portfolio grows

Preferred

• Research experience in nonlinear/robust control, state estimation, or reinforcement learning applied to autonomous systems
• Experience with computer vision or perception methods for navigation, mapping, or object detection/classification
• Experience running algorithms on embedded or real-time hardware
• Experience writing technical proposals or leading independent research
• Familiarity with undersea (AUV/UUV), ground robotic, or other autonomous platforms
• Prior experience mentoring or leading junior researchers or engineers