New Graduate Vehicle Performance Engineer

About Mach Industries

Founded in 2023, Mach Industries is a rapidly growing defense technology company focused on developing next-generation autonomous defense platforms. Our mission is to deliver scalable, decentralized defense systems that enhance the strategic capabilities of the United States and its allies. With about 350 employees, we operate with startup agility and ambition.

Our vision is to redefine the future of warfare through cutting-edge manufacturing, innovation at speed, and a 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.

The Role

Mach Industries is seeking a New Graduate Vehicle Performance Engineer to support the analysis, design, and optimization of next-generation autonomous defense systems. Depending on your experience and interests, you may contribute to aerodynamics, aerothermal analysis, thermal systems, vehicle performance, trajectory analysis, or multidisciplinary design analysis and optimization (MDAO).

You will work alongside engineers across vehicle design, propulsion, structures, GNC, systems, and test to evaluate vehicle concepts, understand key performance drivers, and guide engineering decisions. This role is ideal for an analytically strong engineer who enjoys solving multidisciplinary problems and using modeling, simulation, and test data to improve real-world vehicle performance.

Key Responsibilities

• Analyze the 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 the effects of geometry, mass properties, propulsion, aerodynamics, thermal constraints, and control requirements on overall vehicle performance.
• Build and improve MDAO frameworks that connect multiple engineering disciplines and accelerate design-space exploration.
• Use Python, MATLAB, or similar tools to automate analyses, process data, and communicate technical results.
• Support CFD, 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, GNC, systems, software, manufacturing, and test teams.
• Clearly 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.

Required Qualifications

• Bachelor's, master's, or doctoral degree in Aerospace Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Applied Mathematics, Physics, or a related technical field.
• Graduating 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.
• Foundational understanding of fluid mechanics, thermodynamics, heat transfer, flight mechanics, numerical methods, or vehicle performance.
• Experience using MATLAB, Python, or a similar technical computing language.
• Experience developing analytical models, running simulations, or analyzing engineering data.
• Ability to communicate technical results and work effectively across engineering disciplines.
• Ability to work on-site in Huntington Beach, California.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience in one or more of the following areas: aerodynamics, CFD, aerothermal analysis, thermal management, flight performance, trajectory analysis, vehicle sizing, or MDAO.
• Experience with CFD 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 GNC.
• 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, UAV, CubeSat, or autonomous vehicle organizations.

Additional Requirements

• Available to work extended hours and weekends as needed.

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.