Air Vehicle Lead, Thunder

andurilindustries

Costa Mesa, California, United States · Costa Mesa · United States

Posted Jun 30, 2026

Full-time
Hybrid
Maritime & Maneuver Dominance : Maneuver Dominance Engineering : Program Management

Job description

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 TEAM

Here you will work on core product development for rotorcraft and complex systems, including but not limited to avionics, batteries, mechanisms, structures, sensors and payloads. The role requires high ownership and frequent collaboration with other core disciplines. The ideal candidate would be practical, hands-on and a self starter.

ABOUT THE JOB

Anduril is seeking an Air Vehicle Lead, Thunder to join the Maneuver Dominance team at our Costa Mesa HQ. We are developing a hybrid-electric tiltrotor autonomous aircraft in partnership with a leading advanced air mobility company — Anduril owns the mission system, our partner owns the air vehicle. We need an Air Vehicle Lead to own the technical execution at the co-development interface: ensuring the aircraft our partner builds is optimized for autonomous military missions.

WHAT YOU’LL DO

Own the Air Vehicle System Design Document (SDD) — maintain, evolve, and enforce the design baseline that drives our partner's air vehicle from Anduril's mission needs
Represent Anduril in partner vehicle engineering design reviews — advocate for military mission requirements (payload, power, survivability, flight performance)
Support the CE in defining ICDs and manage the full co-development technical interface: space claims, power/thermal budgets, structural provisions, flight envelope allocations
Drive air vehicle configuration decisions that affect mission capability — payload bay geometry, antenna placement, sensor structural provisions, power architecture
Own TPM management across the air vehicle interface — track verification closure, manage open technical risks
Coordinate vehicle-level architecture decisions from Anduril's perspective — balancing acoustic signature, cruise speed, payload capacity, and certification timeline
Work with our partner to provide simulation models and support operational analysis teams in mission trades
Plan capability increments and mission system integration phasing — define the path from early flight to full mission capability
Support TEMP buildout, design milestones, and flight test planning
Own the air vehicle certification strategy interface — coordinate Anduril's military airworthiness approach with partner's commercial certification
Drive cross-team execution — pull together efforts from both Anduril and partner engineering to maintain schedule and resolve integration issues
Drive the development-to-production configuration evolution to ensure production air vehicle accommodates full military mission system

REQUIRED QUALIFICATIONS

8+ years in rotorcraft, tiltrotor, or VTOL vehicle engineering at the subsystem or vehicle level
Deep understanding of VTOL flight mechanics (hover, transition, cruise) and how they constrain vehicle design
Experience owning or negotiating technical interfaces (ICDs, power budgets, TPMs) across an organizational boundary with an external partner
Hybrid-electric or electric propulsion architecture familiarity
Technical project management — driving execution across multiple teams, managing design milestones, and maintaining schedule accountability in a co-development environment
Requirements engineering — decomposition, baseline management, change control
Ability to operate with influence rather than direct authority — technical credibility as the primary tool
Willingness to travel ~20% (partner sites, UK, test locations)
Must be able to obtain and maintain a U.S. Security Clearance

PREFERRED QUALIFICATIONS

Tiltrotor-specific experience (V-22, AW609, or eVTOL tiltrotor programs)
Airworthiness and certification exposure (Part 27, SC-VTOL, SORA/SAIL, or MIL-HDBK-516C)
Flight test planning and envelope expansion support
Advanced rotor technology familiarity (variable-speed, optimized-speed concepts)
Autonomous systems integration understanding — how AV design affects autonomy performance
Production transition experience (development prototype to production-representative)
UK MoD / allied certification frameworks
eVTOL industry experience

US Salary Range

$146,000—$253,000 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.