Chief Engineer, Advanced Effects (Missiles)

andurilindustries

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

Posted Jul 8, 2026

Full-time
Air Dominance & Strike : Advanced Effects Engineering : Chief Engineering

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.

The Air Dominance and Strike (AD&S) Chief Engineering Team is a driving force behind the technical execution and strategic vision of our most critical programs. They are responsible for architecting a vision for product development and guiding multi-disciplinary teams to deliver effectively. They are expected to own the mission and to be deeply involved in building the eco-system that enables execution.

ABOUT THE JOB
You’ll own the technical development of large aircraft from white paper sketches and conceptual design through detailed design, build, flight test, transition to production, and sustainment. This includes vehicle layout and conceptual design, airframe and propulsion system design and integration, guidance section development, payload and datalink integration, fabrication and flight test. These projects will be diverse in nature and require you to leverage your technical expertise as well as leadership skills to set objectives, build a team, and drive to completion. The ability to leverage your intuition and prior experience in programmatic level decision will play a key component in making sure the right design/analysis/ and test steps are being completed to ensure success without simply completing steps for the sake of the process that don’t add value. The ideal candidate will leverage their experience executing and successfully completing prior highly optimized multi-disciplinary projects.

WHAT YOU'LL DO:

Lead technical and programmatic execution of new and existing air vehicle systems design, fabrication, test, productization and sustainment.
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.
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.
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.
Coordinate the fabrication of prototype and low-rate production articles and subsystem/system level test efforts.
Support remotely deployed operations of your systems.
Work with senior leadership to ensure resource plans are adequate for work scope.

REQUIRED QUALIFICATIONS:

Deep understanding of unmanned aircraft at and above Group 3 class
Bachelor’s degree in Aerospace, Mechanical, Electrical or Software engineering, or equivalent experience in a relevant field.
Experience in a senior role leading air vehicle programs from initial concept through test and delivery to customers
Experience driving strategic direction in competitive landscapes, solving complex system optimization challenges under tight constraints.
Proven ability to deliver functional capabilities while aligning technical objectives with programmatic outcomes.
Demonstrated collaboration and partnerships with internal and external stakeholders
Strong understanding of the “why” behind Vehicle and Systems design.
Experience working on mission critical DOD systems
Experience troubleshooting and analyzing remotely deployed systems.
Travel up to 50% to Customer and Test Sites
Eligible to obtain and maintain an active U.S. Secret security clearance

US Salary Range

$220,000—$292,000 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.

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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.