Senior Program Manager, Air Dominance & Strike, Autonomous Airpower, Software

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

This role is for a Senior Program Manager at Anduril Industries, a defense technology company. The focus is on leading the development and integration of autonomous weapons systems and software, managing programs across the contract lifecycle from R&D to capture and close. The role requires strong systems engineering, execution, cross-functional collaboration, and customer relationship management skills to deliver complex technical systems, particularly software for safety-critical vehicles, on time and within budget. While the company heavily utilizes AI, computer vision, and autonomy, this specific role is a program management position focused on product delivery and execution, not direct AI/ML model development.

What you'd actually do

  1. Monitor and manage program progress across cost, schedule, and resource allocation, making tradeoffs that enable us to deliver best-in-class solutions to our customers on-time and on-budget
  2. Understand and communicate program objectives, effictively decompsing program wide objectives to the SW team
  3. Understand and drive tradeoffs between capability, cost and schedule, ensuring the SW roadmap is optimized
  4. Develop and implement lightweight processes, tools, and metrics for program planning, scope management, risk management, and customer communication to enable Anduril to move rapidly
  5. Utilize tools to accurately predict schedules, driving corrective measures when appropriate

Skills

Required

  • Eligible to obtain and maintain an active U.S. Top Secret security clearance
  • Bachelor’s degree in Engineering, Business Administration, or a related field (technical background preferred)
  • Minimum of 5 years experience managing the development of complex technical systems throughout the product lifecycle
  • Experience managing software development program for safety critical vehicle or component
  • Strong strategic thinking, analytical, and problem-solving abilities
  • Experience coordinating multiple internal and external teams within a complex engineering or technology-focused organization
  • Exceptional communication skills, both written and verbal

Nice to have

  • technical background

What the JD emphasized

  • managing the development of complex technical systems throughout the product lifecycle
  • managing software development program for safety critical vehicle or component
  • Track record of managing more complex programs on time and on budget