Lead GNC Engineer for Autonomous Flight Systems

Mach Industries Inc.; Huntington Beach, Northern (CA, KY); Hybrid; USD 221,000 - 299,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Health insurance

Retirement plans

Paid time off

Equity participation

Professional development

Job summary

Mach Industries Inc. in Huntington Beach, CA, seeks a Principal GNC Engineer to define and flight‑prove GNC architecture for autonomous aircraft and defense platforms. You will own system‑level decisions across guidance, navigation, and flight controls, mentoring teams from design to deployment.

The role demands deep flight‑vehicle expertise, strong software judgment, and the ability to lead cross‑disciplinary teams in a fast‑paced environment with a focus on safety and reliability.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in aerospace engineering, mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, robotics, physics, mathematics, or related field.
• Significant experience designing, implementing, and testing GNC systems for aircraft, missiles, launch vehicles, spacecraft, high‑performance UAVs, or comparable autonomous systems, typically 10+ years.
• Demonstrated ownership of a GNC system through multiple development lifecycle phases: requirements, analysis, implementation, verification, integration, flight test.
• Deep knowledge of flight dynamics, stability and control, trajectory generation, and system identification.
• Experience with nonlinear systems under real‑world actuator, sensor, timing constraints.
• Proficiency with MATLAB/Simulink and C/C++ for modeling and production code.
• Experience with Monte Carlo analysis, verification, and SIL/HIL test environments.
• Strong understanding of flight‑test practices, telemetry analysis, and risk‑based test progression.
• Fluency with Git, CI, requirements traceability, and configuration management.
• Proven ability to lead complex technical decisions and mentor engineers.

Responsibilities

• Own the end-to-end GNC architecture and technical roadmap across all mission phases.
• Translate objectives into GNC requirements, interfaces, and verification criteria.
• Design and mature guidance algorithms, control laws, and state estimation.
• Ensure robust performance across the operating envelope with disturbance considerations.
• Lead flight‑dynamics modeling, system identification, and model correlation.
• Establish software‑in‑the‑loop and hardware‑in‑the‑loop verification workflows.
• Drive production implementation of flight‑critical algorithms in embedded real‑time software.
• Define flight‑readiness criteria and lead test planning, safety reviews, and data analysis.
• Collaborate with aerodynamics, propulsion, avionics, and test teams to resolve risks.
• Communicate decisions and program risks to leadership; mentor engineers.

Skills

GNC leadership

System-level thinking

Problem solving

Cross-disciplinary communication

Mentoring teams

Education

Bachelor's degree in aerospace / related field

Master’s or Ph.D. in related field (preferred)

Tools

MATLAB/Simulink

C/C++

Git

ROS 2

Real-time OS

PX4

SIL/HIL

Job description

Mach Industries Inc. in Huntington Beach, CA, seeks a Principal GNC Engineer to define and flight‑prove GNC architecture for autonomous aircraft and defense platforms. You will own system‑level decisions across guidance, navigation, and flight controls, mentoring teams from design to deployment.

The role demands deep flight‑vehicle expertise, strong software judgment, and the ability to lead cross‑disciplinary teams in a fast‑paced environment with a focus on safety and reliability.