Principal GNC Engineer for Autonomous Flight Systems

Mach-Industries; Huntington Beach (CA); On-site; USD 150,000 - 210,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Health insurance

Retirement plans

Job summary

Mach Industries seeks a Principal GNC Engineer to define and flight-prove the GNC architecture for autonomous aircraft and related defense platforms. You will own system-level decisions across guidance, navigation, flight controls, modeling, and embedded implementation.

This hands-on technical leadership role requires problem-solving across vehicle design, flight qualification, and deployment, with a track record of fielding reliable systems.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in relevant engineering field.
• 10+ years of experience in GNC for autonomous systems.
• Ownership of a GNC system through lifecycle, including requirements and verification.
• Knowledge of flight dynamics, stability, and control theory.

Responsibilities

• Own end-to-end GNC architecture and roadmap across mission phases.
• Translate objectives into GNC requirements, interfaces and budgets.
• Design and mature guidance, control, estimates, and allocation strategies.
• Lead 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 and review activities.

Skills

GNC design

Flight dynamics

Leadership

Requirements-based verification

Education

Bachelor’s degree in engineering

Master’s or PhD in aerospace/controls

Tools

MATLAB/Simulink

C/C++

PX4

ROS 2

SIL/HIL

Job description

Mach Industries seeks a Principal GNC Engineer to define and flight-prove the GNC architecture for autonomous aircraft and related defense platforms. You will own system-level decisions across guidance, navigation, flight controls, modeling, and embedded implementation.

This hands-on technical leadership role requires problem-solving across vehicle design, flight qualification, and deployment, with a track record of fielding reliable systems.