Principal GNC Engineer: Lead Autonomy & Flight Dynamics

Mach Industries; Huntington Beach (CA); On-site; USD 180,000 - 240,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Health insurance

Retirement plans

Professional development opportunities

Equity grants

Job summary

Mach Industries in Huntington Beach, CA, seeks 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 guiding multi-disciplinary teams from early vehicle design through flight qualification and deployment, with a track record of delivering reliable,

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in a technical field with relevant GNC experience.
• 10+ years designing, implementing, and testing GNC systems for autonomous platforms.
• Proven ownership of GNC through requirements, analysis, implementation, verification, and flight test.
• Proficiency with MATLAB/Simulink for modeling and C/C++ for production or embedded code.
• Experience with Monte Carlo analysis and SIL/HIL environments.
• Strong communication and mentoring abilities across disciplines.

Responsibilities

• Own the end-to-end GNC architecture and technical roadmap for all mission phases.
• Translate mission objectives into GNC requirements, interfaces, and verification criteria.
• Design and mature guidance, control laws, state estimation, and fault-handling strategies.
• Ensure robust performance across the operating envelope with actuator/sensor constraints.
• Lead flight-dynamics modeling, system identification, and data-driven validation.
• Establish software-in-the-loop and hardware-in-the-loop verification workflows.
• Drive production implementation of critical algorithms in embedded real-time software.
• Define flight-readiness criteria and lead test planning and risk management.
• Partner with aerodynamics, propulsion, avionics, and test teams on trades and integration risks.
• Communicate decisions and risks to leadership and stakeholders.
• Mentor engineers and establish reusable GNC methods and standards.

Skills

Leadership

Team collaboration

Problem solving

Software judgment

Education

Bachelor’s degree in aerospace, mechanical, electrical, robotics, physics, mathematics

Master’s degree (preferred) in related field

Ph.D. (preferred) in aerospace/controls/robotics

Tools

MATLAB/Simulink

C/C++

Git/CI

SIL/HIL testing

Job description

Mach Industries in Huntington Beach, CA, seeks 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 guiding multi-disciplinary teams from early vehicle design through flight qualification and deployment, with a track record of delivering reliable,