Principal GNC Engineer - Autonomous Flight Systems Lead

Mach-Industries; Los Angeles (CA); On-site; USD 240,000 - 280,000; Full time

Job summary

Mach Industries in Huntington Beach, CA, is seeking a Principal GNC Engineer to define and flight-prove the GNC architecture for autonomous aircraft and defense platforms. You will own system-level decisions across guidance, navigation, flight controls, modeling and simulation, and embedded implementation.

This hands-on leadership role requires solving hard problems, mentoring engineers, and guiding teams from early vehicle design through flight test.

Qualifications

• 10+ years of experience designing GNC systems for autonomous platforms.
• Ownership of a GNC system through lifecycle stages.
• Strong knowledge of flight dynamics, control, and state estimation.
• Proficiency with MATLAB/Simulink and C/C++ for embedded implementations.
• Experience with SIL/HIL test environments and Monte Carlo analysis.
• Ability to lead cross-disciplinary teams and communicate with leadership.

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, control laws, and state-estimation solutions.
• Ensure robust performance under uncertainty, delays, and disturbances.
• Lead flight-dynamics modeling, system identification, and test planning.
• Establish software-in-the-loop and hardware-in-the-loop workflows.
• Drive production implementation of flight-critical algorithms in embedded software.
• Define flight-readiness criteria and lead GNC activities for tests and data analysis.
• Collaborate with aerodynamics, propulsion, avionics, and test teams to resolve risks.
• Mentor engineers, perform design/code reviews, and establish reusable methods.

Skills

GNC architecture

Flight dynamics

System ownership

Leadership

Verification & testing

Education

Bachelor’s degree in aerospace or related field

Master’s or PhD preferred

Tools

MATLAB/Simulink

C/C++

Git/CI

PX4

ROS 2

RTOS

Job description

Mach Industries in Huntington Beach, CA, is seeking a Principal GNC Engineer to define and flight-prove the GNC architecture for autonomous aircraft and defense platforms. You will own system-level decisions across guidance, navigation, flight controls, modeling and simulation, and embedded implementation.

This hands-on leadership role requires solving hard problems, mentoring engineers, and guiding teams from early vehicle design through flight test.