Chief Engineer - Air Dominance & Strike - Advanced Effects

Anduril Anduril · Defense · Costa Mesa, CA · Air Dominance & Strike : Autonomous Airpower Engineering : Chief Engineering

Lead the technical and programmatic execution of air vehicle systems design, fabrication, test, and productization for Anduril's Air Dominance & Strike team. This role involves owning the full lifecycle of aerial and multi-domain robotic systems, from concept to production, leveraging expertise in vehicle layout, airframe, propulsion, guidance, payload integration, and flight test. The position requires strong leadership skills to build teams, set objectives, and drive projects to completion, with a focus on delivering advanced technology to the defense industry.

What you'd actually do

  1. Lead technical and programmatic execution of new and existing air vehicle systems design, fabrication, test and productization.
  2. Own the technical and programmatic success of your programs, establish technical and programmatic vision assemble teams of internal and external subject matter experts, and communicate that vision to them.
  3. Set up trades to enable the exploration of early conceptual designs while working closely with technical SME’s and Business Development teams to find the right solution to current and future gaps in the DOD capability to ensure the warfighter has the best solution for current and future conflicts.
  4. Manage the detailed design of the system and subsystems including requirements development, sub-system trades and optimization, risk management etc. to ensure the appropriate consideration of design key performance parameters, schedule, costs and risks.
  5. Coordinate the fabrication of prototype and low-rate production articles and subsystem/system level test efforts.

Skills

Required

  • Unmanned vehicles/robotics
  • Program leadership
  • System design
  • Team building
  • Troubleshooting remotely deployed systems
  • Aerospace, Mechanical, Electrical or Software engineering background

Nice to have

  • AI
  • Computer Vision
  • Sensor Fusion
  • Autonomy

What the JD emphasized

  • Deep understanding of unmanned vehicles/robotics.
  • Experience in a senior role leading programs from initial concept through test and delivery to customers.
  • Strong understanding of the “why” behind Vehicle and Systems design.
  • Experience creating teams and focusing them around a common vision
  • Experience troubleshooting and analyzing remotely deployed systems.