The Role

Mach Industries is seeking a GNC Engineer - Controls to help develop, implement, and test flight-control systems for autonomous aircraft and related defense platforms. You will contribute across modeling, control-law development, simulation, embedded implementation, integration, and flight-test analysis.

This is a hands-on engineering role for someone building depth in flight dynamics and controls while delivering real vehicle capability. You will work with experienced GNC engineers to turn requirements into analyses and software, investigate system behavior, and build evidence that control functions perform reliably.

The ideal candidate has strong engineering fundamentals, enjoys solving problems with models and data, and is motivated to learn quickly. You approach work carefully, communicate assumptions and results clearly, seek feedback early, and take increasing ownership as your technical judgment develops.

Key Responsibilities

Controls Development and Analysis

• Support the design, analysis, tuning, and verification of flight-control functions such as stability augmentation, attitude and rate control, trajectory tracking, gain scheduling, control allocation, and mode logic.
• Translate defined vehicle objectives into analysis tasks, performance metrics, simulation cases, and verification evidence with guidance from senior engineers.
• Evaluate command tracking, disturbance rejection, stability, robustness, saturation behavior, and transient performance across representative operating conditions.
• Account for aerodynamic variation, mass-property changes, actuator limits, sensor effects, latency, environmental disturbances, and other real-world constraints in analysis and simulation.
• Document methods, assumptions, results, limitations, and recommendations in a clear and reproducible form.

Modeling, Simulation, and Verification

• Develop and maintain vehicle, plant, actuator, sensor, and environmental models used for controls development.
• Use linear and nonlinear analysis techniques to understand vehicle dynamics and control-system behavior.
• Build and run six-degree-of-freedom simulations, Monte Carlo analyses, parameter sweeps, sensitivity studies, and targeted off-nominal cases.
• Create requirements-based tests and automated regression checks with clear expected behavior and pass/fail criteria.
• Compare simulation predictions with component, ground, and flight-test data; investigate discrepancies and update models with review.
• Maintain traceability between input data, model versions, gain sets, software versions, test cases, and reported results.

Software Implementation and Integration

• Implement, test, and review controls algorithms in MATLAB/Simulink, Python, C, or modern C++ as appropriate.
• Support translation of analysis algorithms into embedded, real-time software while accounting for numerical precision, discretization, timing, initialization, mode transitions, and saturation handling.
• Develop unit tests, test vectors, data-replay workflows, and software-in-the-loop or hardware-in-the-loop scenarios.
• Work with Guidance, Navigation, Avionics, Embedded Software, Aerodynamics, Mechanical Engineering, Propulsion, and Test to define interfaces and resolve integration issues.
• Support actuator characterization and evaluate how authority, bandwidth, rate limits, position limits, latency, and failures affect closed-loop performance.

Test and Engineering Execution

• Support ground and flight-test planning by defining objectives, maneuvers, instrumentation needs, expected behavior, and success criteria.
• Analyze test data, compare measured behavior with predictions, and help investigate anomalies or performance shortfalls.
• Break assigned work into clear tasks, identify required inputs and dependencies, and communicate progress or blockers early.
• Ask for review when decisions exceed available evidence or experience, then incorporate feedback into the work.
• Contribute to design reviews, technical documentation, shared tools, coding standards, and team learning.
• Take increasing end-to-end ownership of controls tasks as capability and judgment grow.

Required Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in aerospace engineering, mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, robotics, applied mathematics, physics, or a related technical field.
• Foundational understanding of dynamics, feedback control, linear systems, differential equations, and numerical methods.
• Experience applying controls or dynamics concepts through professional work, internships, co-ops, research, competition teams, or substantial academic projects.
• Ability to use MATLAB/Simulink or Python for modeling, simulation, data analysis, and visualization.
• Exposure to C or modern C++ and an interest in developing production-quality embedded software skills.
• Ability to interpret technical requirements, check work systematically, and communicate results with supporting evidence.
• Comfort working collaboratively, receiving technical feedback, and learning unfamiliar tools or concepts.
• Strong ownership, curiosity, attention to detail, and commitment to reliable engineering work.

Preferred Qualifications

• Master's degree in aerospace engineering, mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, controls, robotics, or a related field.
• Experience with aircraft, rockets, missiles, spacecraft, UAVs, robotics, or other dynamic systems.
• Experience with classical and modern control design, frequency-domain analysis, state-space methods, gain scheduling, or control allocation.
• Experience developing or using six-degree-of-freedom simulations.
• Experience with hardware testing, embedded systems, real-time software, or flight-test data.
• Familiarity with Git, code review, automated testing, continuous integration, issue tracking, or configuration management.
• Experience with PX4, simulation frameworks, or student flight-vehicle programs.

What Success Looks Like

Within your first year, you will have:

• Become a dependable contributor to controls analysis, software, simulation, and test activities.
• Delivered assigned control functions or analyses with clear assumptions, reproducible results, and appropriate review.
• Built a working understanding of the vehicle dynamics, models, control architecture, software interfaces, and verification approach.
• Created useful tests, analysis tools, or simulation improvements that increase team speed and confidence.
• Used ground- or flight-test data to evaluate performance and improve models or control behavior.
• Communicated risks and blockers early, incorporated feedback effectively, and shown growing technical independence.
• Taken end-to-end ownership of increasingly complex controls tasks.

ITAR Requirements

To conform to U.S. Government export regulations, applicant must be a (i) U.S. citizen or national, (ii) U.S. lawful, permanent resident (aka green card holder), (iii) Refugee under 8 U.S.C. § 1157, or (iv) Asylee under 8 U.S.C. § 1158, or be eligible to obtain the required authorizations from the U.S. Department of State. Learn more about the ITAR here.