Payload Lead

andurilindustries

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

Posted Jul 16, 2026

Full-time
Maritime & Maneuver Dominance : Heavy Metal - Engineering & Operations

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

Anduril's Maritime Division is responsible for planning and executing Anduril's product and revenue roadmap for maritime missions. Working across product, engineering, business development, logistics, and operations, the Maritime team develops, tests, deploys, and sustains the Anduril maritime capabilities in a challenging operational environment worldwide. As a leader in the Maritime Division, you must be a technical leader with the expertise to evaluate, qualify, manage, and advocate for an increasing number of sophisticated parallel pursuits. This role is crucial in ensuring that each initiative aligns with the company's strategic direction and receives the appropriate resourcing, balancing innovation with practical execution to drive the business line's success.

ABOUT THE JOB

You will own payload integration within Mission Systems for a maritime autonomous vehicle, owning integration of Anduril and third-party payloads from concept through deployment. Reporting to the Mission Systems Lead, you will own payload interfaces, interoperability, mission development, and reference mission kits. You will ensure payloads meet customer mission requirements and integrate with the vehicle platform and autonomy stack.

Your spectrum of support will be diverse in nature and require you to leverage your technical expertise as well as leadership skills to set objectives, build cross-functional teams, and rapidly drive to completion. The ability to leverage your intuition and prior experience will be key in making sure the right design, analysis, and test steps are completed to ensure success. The ideal candidate will leverage their experience executing and successfully completing prior highly optimized multi-disciplinary projects.

WHAT YOU'LL DO

Own payload architecture: mechanical, electrical, and software interfaces for all mission payloads
Drive integration of Anduril payloads and government-furnished equipment onto the platform
Drive interoperability standards for payload modularity across vehicle configurations
Develop reference mission kits that package payloads with autonomy behaviors for specific mission sets
Define payload interface requirements and work with Vehicle Systems on accommodation
Manage payload integration schedule and cost across prototype and production phases
Coordinate with third-party vendors on payload qualification and integration
Provide technical mentorship to engineers across payload disciplines
Support testing and field deployment of payload systems
Represent the payload subsystem in technical and customer meetings
Interface with Mission Systems Lead and autonomy team on mission system integration
Travel up to 25% to test sites, vendor facilities, and customer locations

REQUIRED QUALIFICATIONS

Bachelor's degree in Engineering, Computer Science, or equivalent
5+ years of experience in payload integration, weapons systems, or mission systems
Experience delivering payload integration in defense or aerospace environments
Demonstrated experience with sensor integration, weapons systems, or C4ISR payloads
Experience with the full product delivery lifecycle: design, test, manufacturing, deployment
Deep understanding of military mission sets and payload capabilities
Eligible to obtain and maintain a U.S. Top Secret security clearance

PREFERRED QUALIFICATIONS

Experience with maritime or undersea payload systems
Working knowledge of payload certification and weapons safety (MIL-STD-882E)
Experience with autonomous systems payload integration
Familiarity with modular open systems architecture (MOSA)
Prior Navy or defense operational experience

US Salary Range

$191,000—$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:
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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.

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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.