{"id":3666808,"url":"https://alion.io/job/mach-industries-principal-navigation-engineer","title":"Principal Navigation Engineer","company":{"id":4935,"name":"Mach Industries","domain":"machindustries.com","url":"https://alion.io/company/machindustries","size_band":"201-500","is_staffing_agency":false,"employer_type":"direct","is_intermediary":false,"listed_via":null,"ats_vendor":"Greenhouse","truth_index":{"grade":"A","score":100,"open_postings":7,"ghost_share":0,"stale_share":0,"repost_share":0,"time_to_fill_p50_days":44,"computed_at":"2026-11-08T05:47:12Z"}},"role":"Industrial Engineering","role_family":"Industrial Engineering","seniority":"lead","employment_type":null,"work_mode":"on_site","remote_scope":null,"remote_scope_basis":null,"remote_working_hours":null,"hiring_geo_confidence":"explicit","locations":["Huntington Beach, United States"],"countries":["US"],"hiring_countries":[],"hiring_countries_total":0,"salary":{"min":230000,"max":265000,"currency":"USD","period":"year","gross":null,"usd_annual":265000},"salary_estimate":null,"experience_years_min":10,"visa_sponsorship":true,"relocation_package":false,"has_equity":true,"technologies":[{"name":"C++","optional":false},{"name":"CI/CD","optional":false},{"name":"Git","optional":false},{"name":"Inertial Navigation","optional":false},{"name":"MATLAB","optional":false},{"name":"Python","optional":false},{"name":"Sensor Fusion","optional":false},{"name":"Simulink","optional":false},{"name":"SLI/SLO/SLA","optional":false}],"status":"live","first_seen_at":"2026-11-03T05:52:57Z","employer_posted_date":"2026-11-03","last_verified_at":"2026-11-08T22:42:07Z","board_verified":true,"closed_at":null,"days_open":5,"trust":{"level":"ok","repost_count":null,"flags":[],"days_open":5},"description":"About Mach Industries\nFounded in 2023, Mach Industries is a rapidly growing defense technology company focused on developing next-generation autonomous defense platforms. At the core of our mission is the commitment to delivering scalable, decentralized defense systems that enhance the strategic capabilities of the United States and its allies. With a workforce of approximately 350 employees, we operate with startup agility and ambition.\nOur vision is to redefine the future of warfare through cutting-edge manufacturing, innovation at speed, and unwavering focus on national security. We are dedicated to solving the next generation of warfare with lethal systems that deter kinetic conflict and protect global security.\nThe Role\nMach Industries is seeking a Principal Navigation Engineer to lead the development, integration, and flight validation of navigation systems for autonomous aircraft and related defense platforms. You will own the technical architecture, performance, and maturation of navigation solutions across all mission phases while leading the execution and development of the Navigation team.\nThis is a hands-on engineering leadership role combining principal-level technical authority, team execution, and people management. You will define navigation architecture, solve challenging estimation and integration problems, establish engineering rigor, develop engineering talent, and ensure navigation capabilities meet program objectives from requirements development through flight test.\nThe ideal candidate combines deep expertise in state estimation, inertial navigation, sensor fusion, and navigation system integration with decisive technical leadership, sound engineering judgment, and effective people leadership. Success requires translating ambiguous mission needs into clear technical plans, balancing rigor with program speed, and fielding reliable navigation systems in challenging operating environments.\nKey Responsibilities\nNavigation Architecture and Technical Ownership\nOwn the technical architecture, roadmap, execution, and delivery of navigation capabilities across requirements, design, implementation, verification, integration, and flight test.\nTranslate mission objectives and vehicle concepts into navigation requirements, sensor specifications, interface definitions, performance budgets, verification criteria, engineering plans, and team deliverables.\nDesign, analyze, and mature navigation algorithms, including inertial navigation, state estimation, sensor fusion, sensor calibration, alignment, integrity monitoring, and fault detection and isolation.\nDevelop robust estimation solutions that account for sensor noise, bias, drift, timing errors, misalignment, environmental disturbances, vehicle dynamics, computational constraints, and modeling uncertainty.\nEstablish rigorous methods for evaluating estimator observability, convergence, consistency, robustness, integrity, and degraded-mode behavior.\nLead technical discussions and design reviews, ensuring architecture and algorithm decisions are supported by appropriate analysis, test evidence, and system-level reasoning.\nIdentify technical deficiencies and risks, establish corrective-action and mitigation plans, and drive issues to resolution.\nServe as the technical authority for navigation architecture, algorithm design, sensor selection, and significant technical trade studies.\nPerformance Analysis, Implementation, and Flight Validation\nLead navigation performance analysis, uncertainty quantification, covariance analysis, Monte Carlo simulation, sensitivity studies, and error-budget development across nominal and off-nominal conditions.\nDevelop and maintain navigation simulation models, sensor error models, and software-in-the-loop and hardware-in-the-loop verification workflows.\nDrive production implementation of navigation algorithms in embedded, real-time software, reviewing numerical stability, computational efficiency, coordinate conventions, timing, initialization, and fault-handling behavior.\nDefine specific ground and flight test objectives, instrumentation requirements, success criteria, and requirements-based verification plans.\nLead navigation data analysis, model correlation, performance assessment, anomaly investigation, and corrective-action validation.\nEnsure navigation algorithms and hardware are appropriately characterized and validated against system-level requirements throughout development and flight testing.\nSensor Selection, Hardware Architecture, and Make-versus-Buy Decisions\nOwn the technical evaluation and selection of navigation sensors and related hardware, including IMUs, GNSS receivers, aiding sensors, and integrated navigation solutions.\nDefine sensor performance requirements based on mission needs, system-level error budgets, environmental constraints, interfaces, and navigation architecture.\nLead quantitative trade studies considering accuracy, noise, bias stability, bandwidth, latency, environmental robustness, size, weight, power, cost, availability, and integration complexity.\nEvaluate make-versus-buy decisions for navigation hardware, algorithms, and integrated solutions, considering performance, development effort, lifecycle cost, schedule, maintainability, supplier support, and strategic value.\nAssess supplier capabilities, component limitations, technology maturity, configuration control, and lifecycle risks to inform architecture and procurement decisions.\nDefine sensor characterization, calibration, qualification, and acceptance-test requirements to demonstrate that selected hardware meets system-level objectives.\nPartner with Avionics, Electrical, Mechanical Engineering, Embedded Software, and Supply Chain teams to ensure successful hardware selection, integration, and lifecycle support.\nTeam Leadership and Development\nLead and develop a small team of navigation engineers, initially managing approximately three direct reports.\nEstablish clear responsibilities, priorities, individual objectives, deliverables, and performance expectations aligned with program milestones.\nDelegate meaningful technical ownership while maintaining accountability for team outcomes and navigation deliverables.\nProvide regular technical feedback, mentorship, coaching, and professional-development opportunities.\nIdentify individual strengths and development areas, assigning responsibilities that build increasing engineering independence and technical depth.\nProactively address performance issues, technical blockers, unclear ownership, and team inefficiencies.\nRecognize when specialized expertise is required and engage the appropriate subject-matter experts.\nFoster a culture of technical rigor, accountability, collaboration, constructive challenge, and continuous improvement.\nEngineering Judgment and Program Execution\nIndependently identify and prioritize the highest-value engineering activities based on program objectives, technical risk, schedule, and available resources.\nDevelop clear technical recommendations for ambiguous problems, evaluating alternatives, trade-offs, consequences, and residual risks.\nMake timely engineering and execution decisions within delegated authority without unnecessary reliance on GNC leadership.\nExercise sound judgment in determining when additional analysis, algorithm complexity, hardware capability, or engineering effort provides meaningful value.\nChallenge assumptions, requirements, and proposed approaches when supported by sound engineering reasoning.\nBalance technical performance, reliability, architectural complexity, development cost, schedule, and program risk.\nCommunicate significant decisions with a clear recommendation, supporting evidence, alternatives considered, and associated risks.\nTake ownership of technical and team outcomes rather than only coordinating or executing direction established by others.\nCross-Functional Leadership and Team Effectiveness\nServe as the primary navigation partner to Guidance, Controls, Avionics, Embedded Software, Aerodynamics, Mechanical Engineering, Test, and program leadership.\nCoordinate navigation requirements, interfaces, integration activities, dependencies, and cross-functional deliverables.\nContribute to system-level trade studies and concepts of operations, identifying navigation requirements, performance limitations, uncertainty impacts, and integration risks.\nBuild effective working relationships across disciplines and independently resolve organizational and technical coordination challenges.\nCommunicate team progress, technical risks, resource needs, schedule impacts, and mitigation plans clearly to engineering leadership and stakeholders.\nEstablish reusable estimation methods, analysis tools, engineering standards, and development processes that improve quality and execution speed.\nAllocate engineering resources to work that materially improves system performance, reliability, risk reduction, or program execution.\nDevelop team capabilities that reduce dependence on individual engineers and improve organizational resilience.\nRequired Qualifications \nBachelor's degree in aerospace engineering, mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, robotics, mathematics, physics, or a related technical field.\nSignificant experience developing, implementing, and testing navigation or state-estimation systems for aircraft, missiles, launch vehicles, spacecraft, high-performance UAVs, robotics, or comparable autonomous systems, typically gained through 10 or more years of relevant work.\nDemonstrated ownership of navigation systems through multiple development phases, including requirements, architecture, algorithm development, implementation, verification, integration, and flight test.\nDeep understanding of inertial navigation, state estimation, Kalman filtering, sensor fusion, stochastic processes, observability, and navigation error propagation.\nStrong knowledge of navigation sensors, including IMUs, GNSS receivers, magnetometers, barometers, and other aiding sensors.\nExperience designing and evaluating estimation algorithms under realistic sensor errors, vehicle dynamics, computational constraints, and timing limitations.\nExperience with Monte Carlo analysis, uncertainty quantification, covariance analysis, requirements-based verification, and SIL/HIL environments.\nStrong understanding of navigation system calibration, alignment, integration, and validation using ground- or flight-test data.\nProficiency with MATLAB/Simulink or Python for modeling, simulation, algorithm development, and performance analysis.\nExperience with C or modern C++ for production or embedded implementations.\nFluency with modern engineering workflows, including Git, code review, continuous integration, issue tracking, requirements traceability, and configuration management.\nDemonstrated ability to lead complex technical decisions, organize team execution, coordinate multidisciplinary activities, and drive deliverables to completion.\nDemonstrated ability to mentor engineers, provide constructive feedback, develop engineering talent, and address performance or execution issues.\nStrong communication skills, engineering judgment, initiative, and accountability.\nPreferred Qualifications \nMaster's degree or Ph.D. in aerospace engineering, electrical engineering, controls, robotics, or a related field.\nExperience fielding navigation systems for autonomous fixed-wing aircraft, missiles, or high-performance unmanned systems.\nExperience formally leading a small engineering team, managing direct reports, or owning multidisciplinary technical execution.\nExpertise in advanced estimation techniques, including extended and unscented Kalman filtering, nonlinear filtering, smoothing, factor graphs, or optimization-based estimation.\nExperience with GNSS-denied or GNSS-degraded navigation, including visual, terrain-relative, radar-aided, or other alternative navigation methods.\nExperience with high-dynamic inertial navigation, strapdown mechanization, attitude es...","description_format":"text","description_chars":17530,"description_truncated":true,"requirements":{"experience_years_min":10,"management_years_min":null,"team_size_min":null,"manages_managers":false,"education":{"level":"bachelor","optional":false},"security_clearance":true,"languages":[]},"benefits":["Equity","Health insurance","Professional development","Retirement plans","Stock options"],"hiring_locations":[{"name":"United States","iso":"US","kind":"country"}],"hiring_excludes":[],"relocation_offered":false,"industries":["Manufacturing","Military","Missiles","Military 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