Program Manager, Mission Autonomy, Active Clearance

Anduril Anduril · Defense · Washington, DC · Air Dominance & Strike : Mission Autonomy Engineering : Program Management

Program Manager for Mission Autonomy division focusing on autonomous flight initiatives. The role involves overseeing the software release lifecycle and development process for internal research and development (IRAD) efforts, leading the integration, testing, and operationalization of next-generation mission autonomy software onto airframes. Responsibilities include driving the autonomy roadmap, owning test and evaluation strategy, collaborating with cross-functional teams, facilitating technical decisions, unblocking the engineering team, managing strategic capture, and reporting to leadership. Requires an active US security clearance and experience in technical program management within aerospace or defense industries, with a preference for autonomy expertise and flight test experience.

What you'd actually do

  1. Own the end-to-end scope, schedule, budget, resource allocation, and execution of the Mission Autonomy IRAD (Internal Research and Development) roadmap.
  2. Own the strategy, development, and execution of team-controlled test environments (Simulation, Software-in-the-Loop, Hardware-in-the-Loop) and test infrastructure. Partner with Test & Evaluation (T&E) teams to coordinate real-world flight testing, ensuring software is thoroughly tested before live flight.
  3. Collaborate with cross-functional teams, including software engineers, hardware engineers, chief engineers, program managers, business operations, and finance to meet the IRAD objectives.
  4. Develop deep technical fluency in vehicle systems to effectively facilitate architectural discussions, evaluate engineering trade-offs, and drive team consensus.
  5. Anticipate bottlenecks, manage risk, make prioritization trade-offs, and clear administrative and logistical hurdles so engineers can focus on building.

Skills

Required

  • Active U.S. Security Clearance
  • Bachelor’s degree in Aerospace Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Computer Science, or a related technical discipline.
  • 4+ years of technical program management, product management, or engineering leadership experience in the aerospace, defense, autonomous systems industries, or relevant industry.
  • Demonstrated ability to thrive in a fast-paced, ambiguous, and rapidly changing environment as a self-starter who gets things done.

Nice to have

  • Active TS/SCI Security Clearance.
  • Experience with autonomous command and control (C2), collaborative autonomy, or AI/ML-driven decision-making systems.
  • Direct hands-on experience planning, executing, and analyzing flight tests for Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS)—ideally Group 3, 4, or 5 platforms.
  • Experience as a rated pilot (manned) or UAS operator (Group 3-5) is a significant plus.

What the JD emphasized

  • Active U.S. Security Clearance
  • Autonomous systems industries
  • autonomous command and control (C2)
  • collaborative autonomy
  • AI/ML-driven decision-making systems

Other signals

  • autonomous flight initiatives
  • autonomous command and control (C2)
  • collaborative autonomy
  • AI/ML-driven decision-making systems