Principal Navigation Engineer (Autonomous Systems)

Location: Huntington Beach, California, United States

Salary: $230,000–$265,000 USD annually, base salary only

Company

Mach Industries is a rapidly growing defense technology startup developing autonomous defense platforms and decentralized systems through advanced manufacturing and rapid innovation.

What you will do

• Own navigation architecture, roadmap, requirements, implementation, verification, integration, and flight-test delivery across autonomous aircraft and related defense platforms.
• Design and mature inertial navigation, state-estimation, sensor-fusion, calibration, alignment, integrity-monitoring, and fault-detection algorithms.
• Lead performance analysis, uncertainty quantification, covariance analysis, Monte Carlo simulation, sensor modeling, SIL/HIL verification, and error-budget development.
• Drive embedded real-time implementation, navigation sensor selection, hardware trade studies, characterization, calibration, and make-versus-buy decisions.
• Define ground and flight-test objectives, analyze test data, investigate anomalies, correlate models, and validate corrective actions.
• Lead and develop an initial team of approximately three navigation engineers while coordinating with GNC, avionics, software, mechanical, aerodynamics, test, supply chain, and program teams.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree in aerospace, mechanical, electrical engineering, robotics, mathematics, physics, or a related technical field.
• Typically 10 or more years of relevant experience developing, implementing, and testing navigation or state-estimation systems for aircraft, missiles, launch vehicles, spacecraft, high-performance UAVs, robotics, or comparable autonomous systems.
• Experience owning navigation systems through requirements, architecture, algorithm development, implementation, verification, integration, and flight test.
• Deep knowledge of inertial navigation, state estimation, Kalman filtering, sensor fusion, stochastic processes, observability, navigation error propagation, and navigation sensor behavior.
• Experience designing and evaluating estimators under realistic sensor errors, vehicle dynamics, computational constraints, and timing limitations.
• Experience with Monte Carlo analysis, uncertainty and covariance analysis, requirements-based verification, and SIL/HIL environments.
• Experience with calibration, alignment, integration, and validation using ground- or flight-test data.
• Proficiency with MATLAB/Simulink or Python and experience with C or modern C++ for production or embedded implementations.
• Experience with Git, code review, continuous integration, issue tracking, requirements traceability, and configuration management, plus demonstrated technical leadership, mentoring, communication, judgment, initiative, and accountability.
• Applicants must be U.S. citizens or nationals, lawful permanent residents, refugees, asylees, or eligible to obtain the required U.S. authorizations under ITAR requirements.

Nice to have

• Master’s degree or Ph.D. in aerospace engineering, electrical engineering, controls, robotics, or a related field.
• Experience with autonomous fixed-wing aircraft, missiles, high-performance unmanned systems, GNSS-denied or GNSS-degraded navigation, visual or terrain-relative navigation, radar aiding, or alternative navigation methods.
• Expertise in extended or unscented Kalman filtering, nonlinear filtering, smoothing, factor graphs, optimization-based estimation, high-dynamic inertial navigation, strapdown mechanization, attitude estimation, and coordinate-frame transformations.
• Experience with sensor selection, characterization, calibration, environmental qualification, integrity monitoring, fault detection and isolation, measurement rejection, and navigation performance monitoring.
• Familiarity with integrated guidance, navigation, and control architectures and with influencing system-level decisions across multidisciplinary teams.

Culture & Benefits

• Startup environment with approximately 350 employees and a focus on technical rigor, accountability, collaboration, constructive challenge, and continuous improvement.
• Healthcare, dental and vision coverage, retirement savings, paid time off, equity or stock options, and performance-based incentives.
• Funding for continuing education, training, and professional development.
• Employment may be conditioned on authorization to receive technology controlled under U.S. export-control laws without sponsorship for an export license.
• Mach participates in E-Verify and provides compensation transparency with benefits and equity considered separately from base salary.