Chief Engineer, Autonomous Flight

Anduril Industries is a defense technology company with a mission to transform U.S. and allied military capabilities with advanced technology. By bringing the expertise, technology, and business model of the 21st century’s most innovative companies to the defense industry, Anduril is changing how military systems are designed, built and sold. Anduril’s family of systems is powered by Lattice OS, an AI-powered operating system that turns thousands of data streams into a realtime, 3D command and control center. As the world enters an era of strategic competition, Anduril is committed to bringing cutting-edge autonomy, AI, computer vision, sensor fusion, and networking technology to the military in months, not years.

About the Job

The Air Dominance & Strike team at Anduril develops aerial and multi-domain robotic systems. The team is responsible for taking products like Fury (unmanned fighter jet) and Barracuda (air-breathing cruise missile) from concept to product. The team also develops Lattice for Mission Autonomy, Anduril’s premier software platform that enables masses of Fury, Barracuda, and other first and third-party robots to collaborate across various missions. We work in close coordination with specialist teams like Perception, Motion Planning, Hardware, and Test Engineering to solve some of the hardest problems facing our customers.

As a Chief Engineer, you will own the technical architecture and system-level design of the onboard autonomy stack, command and control systems, and modular payloads for our next-generation autonomous platforms. With a software heavy focus, you will guide lean, multi-disciplinary engineering teams from "0-to-1" design through deployment, bridging the gap between high-level business strategy and rigorous engineering execution.

What You'll Do:

• Lead systems engineering, requirements decomposition, and technical architecture for software-heavy robotics systems.

• Guide small, fast-moving groups of individual contributors through the design, implementation, and deployment phases of emerging programs.

• Oversee hardware/software integration and testing (simulation, hardware-in-the-loop, and field testing) to ensure perception, motion planning, and task allocation algorithms run seamlessly on physical platforms.

• Partner with Product Managers and Business Development to convert customer mission needs and operational concepts into concrete technical milestones.

• Decide technical trade-offs across concurrent programs, helping teams prioritize engineering efforts.

Required Qualifications:

• Proven track record directing technical architecture and guiding individual contributors as a lead engineer

• Background in developing and fielding software-heavy robotics, autonomous systems, or aerospace products.

• Strong hardware/software integration skills, including robotics software architectures and tactical mission systems.

• Experience with autonomous systems, mission-critical Department of Defense systems, or tactical edge technologies.

• Travel: Ability to travel up to 25% to customer sites and field testing locations.

• Education: BS, MS, or PhD in Robotics, Aerospace, ME, EE, CS, or equivalent.

• Security Clearance: Eligible to obtain and maintain an active U.S. Secret clearan

Preferred Qualifications:

• Advanced knowledge in Motion Planning, Perception, Command & Control, SLAM, task allocation, or tactical networking.

• Work history involving multi-domain unmanned systems (air, ground, or maritime).

• Understanding of edge-AI/ML deployment on autonomous physical systems.

Per Anduril's expansion plans, we anticipate this job will be based out of Long Beach, CA beginning late 2027.

US Salary Range

$220,000—$330,000 USD

The salary range for this role is an estimate based on a wide range of compensation factors, inclusive of base salary only. Actual salary offer may vary based on (but not limited to) work experience, education and/or training, critical skills, and/or business considerations. Highly competitive equity grants are included in the majority of full time offers; and are considered part of Anduril's total compensation package. Additionally, Anduril offers top-tier benefits for full-time employees, including:

Benefits

At Anduril, we invest in our people. Our comprehensive, competitive benefits package (available at little to no cost to employees) ensures you’re supported in health, recovery, and whatever comes next. For more information, Explore Our Benefits.

Protecting Yourself from Recruitment Scams

Anduril is committed to maintaining the integrity of our Talent acquisition process and the security of our candidates. We've observed a rise in sophisticated phishing and fraudulent schemes where individuals impersonate Anduril representatives, luring job seekers with false interviews or job offers. These scammers often attempt to extract payment or sensitive personal information.

To ensure your safety and help you navigate your job search with confidence, please keep the following critical points in mind:

• No Financial Requests: Anduril will never solicit payment or demand personal financial details (such as banking information, credit card numbers, or social security numbers) at any stage of our hiring process. Our legitimate recruitment is entirely free for candidates.

• Please always verify communications:
  • Direct from Anduril: If you receive an email from one of our recruiters, it will only come from an @anduril.com address.
  • Via Agency Partner: If contacted by a recruiting agency for an Anduril role, their email will clearly identify their agency. If you suspect any suspicious activity, please verify the agency's authenticity by reaching out to contact@anduril.com.

• Exercise Caution with Unsolicited Outreach: If you receive any communication that appears suspicious, contains grammatical errors, or makes unusual requests, do not engage. Always confirm the sender's email domain is @anduril.com before providing any personal information or clicking on links.

• What to Do If You Suspect Fraud: Should you encounter any questionable or fraudulent outreach claiming to be from Anduril, please report it immediately to contact@anduril.com. Your proactive caution is invaluable in protecting your personal information and upholding the security and trustworthiness of our recruitment efforts.

Data Privacy

To view Anduril's candidate data privacy policy, please visit https://anduril.com/applicant-privacy-notice/.

By submitting your application, you consent to Anduril Industries using a third-party service provider to conduct pre-employment risk, integrity, and due diligence screening and assessing potential risks as part of your application process. This third-party service provider provides risk-intelligence services that may include analysis of sanctions and watchlists, adverse media, public-record information, and other lawful open-source or commercial data sources. This third-party service provider does not act as a consumer reporting agency. Use of this provider helps to ensure compliance with applicable laws and protect technology, intellectual property, and organizational security.