Principal Engineer, cUAS Lead, Omen

Costa Mesa · Costa Mesa, CA (OC-00) · USD 220,000-292,000 · 10+ years experience · Full-time · Remote · Posted Sep 29, 2026

At a glance

We need a Principal Engineer to own Omen’s airborne counter-UAS effector payload end to end, and to build the team around it.
Own the counter-UAS effector payload end to end, from first prototype to qualified production hardware.

Own the counter-UAS effector payload end to end, from first prototype to qualified production hardware.
Design the effector and firing system, including mounting structure, recoil and impulse management, feed and cycling, and safe and arm interlocks.
Own the steering hardware by sizing the actuators, gearing, and drives, and designing isolation to protect the airframe from firing loads and the effector from rotor wash.
Hold the pointing error budget and know where every part of it goes.
Select and evaluate sensors that range and locate the target, performing bench and flight characterization for range accuracy, latency, and track quality against small targets in clutter.
Build and lead the team by hiring across mechanical, electrical, firmware, and test, setting the technical bar, and establishing how the team works.
Set the payload roadmap, balancing near-term demonstrations against the architecture that has to carry into production.
Own payload interface control with the vehicle and mission system teams, covering mounting and alignment, power and signal definitions, harnessing, and time sync.
Plan and run ground and flight test campaigns, including live range events, and lead root-cause work when results do not match prediction.
Take hardware to production through design for manufacturability, tolerance and reliability analysis, supplier selection, first article, and acceptance test.

10+ years designing electromechanical hardware, including at least one product carried from concept to production
Strong engineering background, ideally in Mechanical Engineering, Mechatronics, Aerospace, or Electrical Engineering
Experience leading multidisciplinary teams, including hiring
Deep mechanical design capability: structures under high transient loads, precision mechanisms, tolerance stack-ups, and joint design
Experience sizing actuators for precision pointing, and a working grasp of the control bandwidth tradeoffs that come with it
Experience with vibration and shock isolation, including isolator selection and the dynamic analysis behind it
Experience selecting and characterizing ranging sensors such as radar, lidar, EO/IR, or laser rangefinders
Hands-on test experience, from rig design and instrumentation through data analysis that closes a design question
Experience taking hardware to production: DFM, supplier engagement, first article inspection, acceptance test
Proficiency in CAD (NX, SolidWorks, or equivalent)

Direct experience with weapon, effector, launcher, or ordnance-adjacent systems, including safe and arm design
Counter-UAS experience, whether engagement chains, fire control, or targeting small unmanned aircraft
VTOL, tail-sitter, or rotorcraft experience, and familiarity with the payload environment they create (vibration, EMI, rotor wash)
Experience with stabilized pointing, gimbals, boresighting, or targeting chains
Familiarity with fire control, including lead and ballistic solutions and sensor-to-effector latency
Environmental qualification testing (MIL-STD-810, MIL-STD-461)
Airworthiness experience with external stores
MATLAB/Simulink, multibody dynamics, or FEA for transient structural loads

Highly competitive equity grants included in the majority of full time offers
Top-tier benefits for full-time employees, including support in health, recovery, and whatever comes next

Ability to travel about 25% with potential surges for test and demonstration events