Technical Program Manager, Release - Mission Autonomy

Anduril Anduril · Defense · Costa Mesa, CA · Air Dominance & Strike : Mission Autonomy Engineering : Program Management

Technical Program Manager to oversee software release lifecycle for Air Dominance & Strike (AD&S) at a defense technology company. Focus on on-time, high-quality software releases, defining quality gates, and improving release management processes. Requires experience in mission-critical software development, technical program management, and strong communication/analytical skills.

What you'd actually do

  1. drive the software release process from planning to testing and deployment, ensuring on-time, stable releases that meet customer requirements.
  2. define and continuously evolve quality gates, test strategies, and critical release metrics. Partner closely with engineering teams to ensure rigorous testing and embed quality at every stage of the development and release pipeline.
  3. act as the connective tissue between engineering, test & evaluation, and program management, ensuring seamless execution across teams.
  4. establish clear frameworks for prioritization, communication, and decision-making that help teams cut through ambiguity and focus on what matters. Rapidly assess technical risks and identify critical release blockers, developing actionable plans to drive issues to resolution.
  5. architect and champion a release management process that balances speed with stability, seeking feedback and leveraging data to implement improvements that scale.

Skills

Required

  • 4+ years of proven experience managing technical programs in high-paced, mission-critical software development environments.
  • Deep technical acumen: understand software development lifecycles, system architectures, testing methodologies, and quality assurance principles, enabling effective navigation of technical challenges and trade-offs.
  • Relentless prioritization: proven ability to identify, escalate, and drive critical path issues to resolution, ensuring release integrity and timeliness.
  • Exceptional communication: ability to effectively engage in technical discussions and translate technical details to diverse internal audiences.
  • Data-driven & analytical mindset: comfort leveraging metrics and analytics to drive decisions, measure release health, and continuously improve quality.
  • Highly organized: Able to manage concurrent priorities in a fast-moving environment.

Nice to have

  • Direct experience with release management, CI/CD pipelines, and advanced software build systems in a complex, multi-component environment.
  • Background in defense, hardware, autonomy, or robotics deployments, with an understanding of associated mission-critical quality standards.
  • Demonstrated ability to thrive and provide strategic direction in ambiguous, rapidly evolving environments with minimal oversight.
  • Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or a related technical field.

What the JD emphasized

  • mission-critical
  • customer requirements
  • rigorous testing
  • technical risks
  • release blockers
  • release integrity
  • mission-critical quality standards