Mach Industries
Principal Forward Deployed Autonomous Systems Engineer
$180K–$210K
Huntington Beach, California, United States · Principal · Full-time · Posted Sep 23, 2026
- Experience
- No specific number of years stated.
- Education
- Bachelor’s degree in robotics, aerospace engineering, electrical engineering, mechanical engineering, computer science, or another relevant STEM discipline; or equivalent hands-on technical experience.
- Visa sponsorship
- Applicants must be U.S. citizens or nationals, lawful permanent residents, refugees, asylees, or eligible to obtain required U.S. Department of State authorizations. Employment offers may be conditioned on export-control authorization without sponsorship for an export license. Mach participates in E-Verify.
About the job
Leads fielding, operational readiness, customer engagement, and continued development of autonomous defense platforms, translating field experience into product improvements.
What you'll do
- Set operating standards and assess readiness, risk, procedures, and support strategies for autonomous vehicle deployments.
- Lead flight-operations customer engagements, training, field tests, troubleshooting, and prototype-to-product transitions.
- Manage and mentor field engineers while turning operational feedback into engineering priorities.
What they ask for
- Bachelor’s degree in a relevant STEM discipline or equivalent hands-on technical experience.
- Extensive experience operating, integrating, testing, or fielding unmanned aircraft, autonomous systems, robotics, or similarly complex electromechanical systems.
- Demonstrated leadership in technical field operations, deployments, flight tests, or customer demonstrations; experience assessing readiness and making risk-informed recommendations.
- Ability to travel frequently, lead domestic and international deployments, and work extended hours and weekends as needed.
Nice to have
- Experience transitioning autonomous prototypes into repeatable products or developing operational concepts of employment.
- Experience with flight-control ecosystems such as PX4, ArduPilot, QGroundControl, or Mission Planner; FAA Part 107 certificate or U.S. security clearance.
Pay
$180,000 — $210,000 USD (base salary)
Tools
PX4, ArduPilot, QGroundControl, Mission Planner, Linux, Git, Python, C++
AI focus
Leads field deployment and operational development of autonomous defense platforms; no specific AI work is stated.
Model-written summary · the original posting is authoritative