Principal Avionics Systems Engineer

Principal Avionics Systems Engineer - Honda Research Institute USA

Honda is on a mission to revolutionize freedom of mobility by building the next generation of mobility ecosystems, with Honda's hybrid-electric eVTOL aircraft at the core. Through this new mobility ecosystem, Honda aims to bring people the joy of expanding their life's potential.

San Luis Obispo, CA

Avionics systems are critical to the safe and effective operation of Honda's hybrid-electric eVTOL aircraft. These systems provide flight-deck functionality, situational awareness, communication, navigation, surveillance, aircraft-data management and recording, and interfaces with flight-control and vehicle-management functions.

The Principal Avionics Systems Engineer will serve as a technical leader responsible for defining and delivering the aircraft avionics architecture. The scope includes flight-deck systems, displays, communication, navigation, surveillance, sensors, aircraft data networks, recording systems, and integration with the Automatic Flight Control System (AFCS), Flight Director (FD), Flight Management System (FMS), Vehicle Management System (VMS), Fly-by-Wire (FBW) system, hybrid-electric propulsion system, electrical power system and other aircraft subsystems.

Reporting to the Avionics Director, this onsite position will serve as the technical focal point for delivering a safe, certifiable, and high-performance avionics solution.

Avionics Architecture, Requirements and Interface Definition

• Lead the development and maturation of the Avionics architecture, functional decomposition, requirements allocation, and design-baseline development for Honda's prototype and certification aircraft programs.
• Establish and maintain avionics system requirements, architecture and design descriptions, Interface Control Documents (ICDs), performance requirements and bidirectional traceability.
• Coordinate across VMS/FBW, Electrical, Propulsion, Safety, EWIS, Flight Test, suppliers, and certification stakeholders; close interface gaps early.
• Address hybrid-electric aircraft considerations, including power availability, load shedding, propulsion and energy-status data, degraded operating modes, EMI/EMC and thermal constraints.

Supplier Design & Technical Execution

• Serve as the technical authority for avionics supplier selection, requirements flow-down, design reviews, deliverables, compliance, and issue closure.
• Evaluate supplier architectures and equipment for functional performance, interfaces, safety, environmental qualification, maintainability, and integration readiness.
• Manage technical risks, dependencies, actions, configuration changes, and supplier accountability against program milestones.
• Lead avionics integration and verification across simulation, SIL/HIL, lab, aircraft ground test, and flight test environments.
• Define verification methods, procedures, pass/fail criteria, coverage, and data-review expectations for system and interface requirements.
• Support FHA, PSSA, SSA, compliance plans/reports, certification evidence, SOI readiness, and SRR/IDR/PDR/CDR review packages.

Technical Leadership and Program Coordination

• Act as the onsite avionics technical focal point for decisions, issue resolution, schedule alignment, and cross-functional dependency management.
• Coach engineers, facilitate technical trade studies, communicate status and risks to leadership, and drive disciplined requirements and configuration management.
• Extensive experience with airborne electronic hardware, embedded software, aircraft data networks and complex aircraft-system interfaces.
• Experience with eVTOL, powered-lift, rotorcraft, hybrid-electric aircraft or other highly integrated aircraft is preferred.