Vehicle Performance Engineer New Grad - Vehicle Performance
$115k - $130k+ Performance-based bonus + Equity/stock options
Entry
Bachelor's, Master's, PhD
Huntington Beach, CA, USA
In Person
Aerospace EngineeringAerodynamics, Flight Dynamics & GNC
No H1B Sponsorship
About the job
Requirements
- A bachelor's, master's, or doctoral degree in Aerospace Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Applied Mathematics, Physics, or a related technical field is required.
- The candidate must graduate with a bachelor's, master's, or doctoral degree by summer 2027.
- Technical experience gained through internships, research, academic projects, student teams, or professional roles is required.
- Foundational understanding of fluid mechanics, thermodynamics, heat transfer, flight mechanics, numerical methods, or vehicle performance is required.
- Experience using MATLAB, Python, or a similar technical computing language is required.
- Experience developing analytical models, running simulations, or analyzing engineering data is required.
- The candidate must be able to communicate technical results and work effectively across engineering disciplines.
- The candidate must be able to work on-site in Huntington Beach, California.
- The candidate must be available to work extended hours and weekends as needed.
- The candidate must meet ITAR eligibility requirements: be a U.S. citizen or national, U.S. lawful permanent resident, refugee, or asylee, or be eligible to obtain required authorizations from the U.S. Department of State.
Responsibilities
- Analyze aerodynamic, aerothermal, thermal, and mission-level performance of aircraft, missiles, and other autonomous defense platforms.
- Develop analytical models and simulation tools to evaluate vehicle performance across operating conditions and mission profiles.
- Perform aerodynamic and thermal analyses using computational, reduced-order, and first-principles methods.
- Support vehicle sizing, configuration development, trajectory analysis, and multidisciplinary design trade studies.
- Evaluate how geometry, mass properties, propulsion, aerodynamics, thermal constraints, and control requirements affect overall vehicle performance.
- Build and improve multidisciplinary design analysis and optimization frameworks that connect engineering disciplines and accelerate design-space exploration.
- Use Python, MATLAB, or similar tools to automate analyses, process data, and communicate technical results.
- Support computational fluid dynamics, conjugate heat transfer, thermal network, or other physics-based modeling activities.
- Correlate analytical and simulation results with wind-tunnel, ground-test, environmental-test, or flight-test data.
- Collaborate with vehicle design, propulsion, structures, guidance, navigation and control, systems, software, manufacturing, and test teams.
- Communicate assumptions, technical risks, performance trades, and recommendations to the broader engineering team.
- Develop tools, processes, and documentation that improve the speed and repeatability of vehicle analysis.
Desired Qualifications
- Experience in one or more of the following areas: aerodynamics, computational fluid dynamics, aerothermal analysis, thermal management, flight performance, trajectory analysis, vehicle sizing, or multidisciplinary design analysis and optimization.
- Experience with computational fluid dynamics or thermal-analysis tools such as ANSYS Fluent, STAR-CCM+, OpenFOAM, Thermal Desktop, Simcenter, or equivalent software.
- Familiarity with aerodynamic database development, stability and control derivatives, or flight-performance modeling.
- Experience with steady-state or transient heat-transfer analysis, conjugate heat transfer, electronics cooling, or environmental testing.
- Experience developing multidisciplinary optimization workflows or integrating models across aerodynamics, propulsion, structures, mass properties, and guidance, navigation and control.
- Familiarity with optimization, uncertainty quantification, surrogate modeling, design of experiments, or statistical analysis.
- Experience correlating simulations with wind-tunnel, laboratory, environmental, or flight-test data.
- Participation in technical student teams such as Design/Build/Fly, rocketry, Formula SAE, unmanned aerial vehicle, CubeSat, or autonomous vehicle organizations.
About the company
Mach Industries designs and builds unmanned military systems, including VTOL drones, long-range strike weapons, and counter-UAS, along with propulsion and energetics. Its products integrate flight hardware, powerplants, and munitions into compact, mission-ready systems with a focus on in-house manufacturing to lower costs. It differentiates itself through vertical integration, owning propulsion and energetic components, and expanding via the Exquadrum acquisition to ease munitions bottlenecks while maintaining a large California manufacturing footprint. Its goal is to scale manufacturing capacity and accelerate programs to meet defense contracts, supported by large funding rounds to grow production and operations.
Company Size
201-500
Company Stage
Series C
Total Funding
$1.1B
Headquarters
Huntington Beach, California
Founded
2022
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Simplify's Take
What believers are saying
- September 2026 investors added $600 million, backing Mach's scale-up after June's $300 million round.
- June 2026 production and DIU wins validated demand from the Navy, Army, and allies.
- Mach's Viper demo to Lithuania and Estonia broadened NATO interest beyond U.S. procurement.
What critics are saying
- Brian Harley sued Mach in California Central Court in February 2026; hearings resumed September.
- Mach's September 2026 $3.7 billion valuation dwarfs its still-early production and contracts.
- A manufacturing or certification failure would stall Atlas, Viper, and Energetics revenue.
What makes Mach Industries unique
- Ethan Thornton vertically integrates airframes, propulsion, and energetics under one 2023 company.
- June 2026 DIU awarded Mach the Navy's runway-independent strike aircraft integrator role.
- May 2026 Exquadrum acquisition gives Mach in-house solid-rocket-motor supply and sales.
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Benefits
- Health Insurance
- 401(k) Retirement Plan
- 401(k) Company Match
- Paid Vacation
- Paid Holidays
- Relocation Assistance
- Professional Development Budget
- Meal Benefits