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Poseidon Aerospace

Develops uncrewed fixed-wing cargo aircraft

Guidance, Navigation, and Control Engineer

Full-Time
No salary listed
Mid
Bachelor's, Master's, PhD
Alameda, CA, USA
In PersonTravel to the flight test site is required.
Aerospace EngineeringFlight Dynamics & GNC

About the job

Requirements
  • A Bachelor of Science in aerospace engineering, mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, or a related field, or equivalent experience.
  • At least 2 years designing guidance, navigation, or control algorithms for aircraft, spacecraft, or comparable vehicles.
  • Strong grounding in flight dynamics and classical and modern control theory.
  • Experience building or using six-degree-of-freedom simulation to design and verify algorithms.
  • Proficiency in MATLAB/Simulink or Python, and working knowledge of C++.
Responsibilities
  • Design and tune flight control laws for all phases of flight, including takeoff and landing.
  • Develop navigation and state-estimation algorithms that fuse GNSS, inertial, and air-data sensors.
  • Develop guidance algorithms for trajectory following and autonomous takeoff and landing.
  • Design sensor and actuator fault detection and the control response to failures.
  • Build and maintain six-degree-of-freedom simulation models of the aircraft, sensors, actuators, and environment.
  • Analyze stability, control margins, and performance across the flight envelope, including Monte Carlo analysis.
  • Work with flight software to implement algorithms in flight code and verify the implementation against the design.
  • Verify algorithms in software-in-the-loop and hardware-in-the-loop testing.
  • Support flight-test planning and execution, including travel to the flight-test site.
  • Analyze flight data to validate models, identify aircraft dynamics, and refine gains.
Desired Qualifications
  • GNC experience on fixed-wing aircraft, crewed or uncrewed.
  • Algorithms designed by the candidate have flown on a real vehicle.
  • Experience with Kalman filtering and GNSS/INS integration.
  • Experience with autonomous takeoff and landing.
  • Experience with hardware-in-the-loop testing.
  • Experience with system identification from flight-test data.
  • An M.S. or Ph.D. in controls, dynamics, or a related field.

About the company

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Poseidon Aerospace

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Website

Poseidon Aerospace designs and builds unmanned fixed-wing cargo aircraft for defense and regional commercial air cargo. Its planes are combustion-powered and designed to shed crewed freighter mass (no cockpit or life-support) to improve payload-to-empty-weight and reduce operating costs, with variants including the Egret and a seaplane variant called Heron. The company uses a demonstrator (quarter-scale Seagull) and aims to mature to full-scale aircraft that can operate on remote routes with degraded infrastructure, rather than pursuing electric or hydrogen powertrains. Unlike many competitors, Poseidon plans to run its own regional cargo service instead of selling aircraft, focusing on remote, underserved corridors and a pilotless, hub-to-spoke model. The goal is to achieve a first full-scale Egret test flight by the end of 2026 from Alameda, followed by establishing a regional cargo operation to serve those challenging routes.

Company Size

11-50

Company Stage

Series A

Total Funding

$72.4M

Headquarters

San Francisco, California

Founded

2023

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Simplify's Take

What believers are saying

  • September 8, 2026 Series A raised $60 million from TQ Ventures and Hanwha.
  • Poseidon expects Egret's first uncrewed flight by year-end 2026, a near-term catalyst.
  • Company says prior Seagull testing de-risked the full-scale program before flight testing.

What critics are saying

  • FAA certification for pilotless cargo remains unresolved; commercial revenue waits until approval.
  • The first full-scale Egret flight in 2026 is still the program's hardest milestone.
  • A crash or failed autonomy demo in late 2026 kills customer trust and financing.

What makes Poseidon Aerospace unique

  • Egret and Heron use combustion-powered fixed-wing designs, avoiding eVTOL and battery-range constraints.
  • Poseidon operates aircraft itself, pairing hardware with logistics network economics, not pure aircraft sales.
  • Heron reaches water, and Egret uses paved or unpaved runways, widening mission access.

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Benefits

  • 401(k) Company Match
  • Health Insurance
  • Relocation Assistance
  • Company Equity
  • Meal Benefits

Growth & Insights and Company News

Headcount

6 month growth

13%

1 year growth

13%

2 year growth

30%
Defense Daily
Sep 8th, 2026
Unmanned cargo aircraft startup Poseidon Aerospace raises $60 million ahead flight testing.

Unmanned cargo aircraft startup Poseidon Aerospace raises $60 million ahead flight testing. Tuesday, September 8th, 2026 Poseidon Aerospace, which is developing unmanned cargo aircraft for commercial and defense logistics, has raised $60 million in a Series A round that will be used for the upcoming flight-test campaign of its first full-scale aircraft, establish a production line and hire more employees. The investment was led by TQ Ventures. Egret is Poseidon's flagship unmanned aircraft, a regional freighter slated to conduct its first uncrewed flight this year. The aircraft has a payload capacity of 4,000 pounds, a range... Not a subscriber or registered user yet? Please contact us at [email protected] or call us at 888-707-5814 (Monday - Thursday 9:00 a.m. - 5:30 p.m. and Friday 9:00 a.m. - 3:00 p.m. ET.), to start a free trial, get pricing information, order a reprint, or post an article link on your website.

Business Circle
Sep 8th, 2026
Poseidon Aerospace, which plans the first test flight of its pilotless cargo plane by year-end, raised a $60M Series A led by TQ Ventures, after an $11M seed (Sean O'Kane/TechCrunch).

Poseidon Aerospace, which plans the first test flight of its pilotless cargo plane by year-end, raised a $60M Series A led by TQ Ventures, after an $11M seed (Sean O'Kane/TechCrunch). Sean O'Kane / TechCrunch: Poseidon Aerospace, which plans the primary check flight of its pilotless cargo airplane by year-end, raised a $60M Sequence A led by TQ Ventures, after an $11M seed - Silicon Valley is understood for embracing the ethos of "transfer quick and break issues." Poseidon Aerospace's co-founder and CEO David Zagaynov simply needs to maneuver issues quick. September 9, 2026 September 8, 2026

The Techstreet Now
Sep 8th, 2026
Poseidon Aerospace lands $60M ahead of first pilotless test flight

The startup is trying to rethink the economics of cargo aircraft by removing pilots from the equation entirely.

TechAmerica
Sep 8th, 2026
Poseidon Aerospace raises $60 million ahead of first pilotless cargo plane test flight.

Poseidon Aerospace raises $60 million ahead of first pilotless cargo plane test flight. Poseidon Aerospace has raised $60 million to develop autonomous cargo aircraft and prepare for the first test flight of its Egret plane. Sep 8, 2026 - 12:27 Poseidon Aerospace has raised $60 million in Series A funding as the company prepares for the first test flight of its uncrewed cargo aircraft, Egret, expected by the end of this year. Consult Corporate Lawyers Discover more Form An LLC Compare Business Loans Try Operations Software The round follows an earlier $11 million seed investment and will help the startup expand development of autonomous cargo aircraft to reduce the cost of regional air logistics. The company's mission is to move freight more efficiently rather than develop expensive new aviation technologies. Building autonomous cargo aircraft. CEO David Zagaynov and co-founder Parker Tenney founded Poseidon Aerospace after identifying an opportunity to improve cargo transportation through automation and simpler aircraft designs. The company is avoiding some of the approaches used by many advanced air mobility startups. Instead of vertical takeoff systems or electric and hydrogen powertrains, Poseidon is developing fixed-wing aircraft powered by conventional combustion engines. The startup's Egret aircraft and its seaplane variant, Heron, are designed around autonomy and remote operation. Poseidon says removing the need for onboard pilots could cut operating costs and let aircraft spend more time transporting cargo. Defense and commercial cargo markets. Poseidon is initially targeting defence applications and regional commercial cargo operations. The company is designing aircraft to serve remote communities and areas with limited traditional air cargo infrastructure. For commercial operations, Poseidon plans to operate its own regional air cargo network instead of selling aircraft. The company aims to compete for logistics demand from major cargo operators and businesses. Discover more Join Trade Groups Try CAD Software Preparing for first flight. Poseidon previously developed and tested a smaller-scale version of its aircraft called Seagull before moving toward a full-size vehicle. The company has expanded operations into a former Navy hangar in Alameda, California, as it prepares for production and flight testing. Consult Corporate Lawyers The company previously announced its $11 million funding round to support the development of unmanned cargo aircraft technology. Poseidon has also shared details about its aircraft development through a video presentation showing its approach to autonomous cargo aviation. A changing aviation landscape. Poseidon is entering an aviation market where regulators have become more open to testing new aircraft technologies. The Federal Aviation Administration has introduced programs supporting emerging aviation companies, creating more opportunities for startups developing new aircraft systems. The company believes autonomous cargo aircraft could create a more flexible logistics network by allowing routes to change more easily based on demand without the limitations of traditional pilot-based operations.

Poseidon Aerospace
Nov 6th, 2025
Poseidon Aerospace

Poseidon is reimagining logistics with autonomous aircraft built to move goods faster,cheaper, anywhere they're needed. We are building the unmanned backbone of tomorrow's logistics.