Senior Technical Program Manager, Small Drones

andurilindustries

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

Posted May 5, 2026

Full-time
Tactical Recon & Strike

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

The Tactical Recon & Strike team at Anduril develops aerial small drones (Group 1-3) and all equipment to test, deploy and operate. The team is responsible for taking products like Ghost, Anvil, Bolt and Altius from concepts to operational systems. We work in close coordination with specialist teams to solve some of the hardest problems facing our customers. We are looking for software engineers, hardware engineers, roboticists, and front-end mobile developers who are excited about creating a powerful robotics platform that can be tasked and viewed in real-time through a variety of interfaces.

WHAT YOU’LL DO:

Define the software roadmap for core TRS Products like Ghost, Anvil, Bolt, and Altius.
Autonomously execute on broad and/or ambiguous requirements from internal engineering, the program office, and third party corporate partners to own successful delivery of outcomes on multiple programs simultaneously.
Coordinate and execute frequent test events involving various levels of software and hardware, from full-software and hardware-in-the-loop simulations at Anduril HQ to flight test events and demonstrations at test sites.
Demonstrate extreme ownership of all pieces of work; become a trusted partner to Anduril’s engineers and product leaders.
Partner deeply with engineering leaders to drive successful program execution and team velocity across groups of software teams and more broadly across departments. Be an effective proxy in program and organizational matters to help engineering leads scale.
Ensure that the organization’s technical roadmap is well understood and that programs and staffing are aligned with the roadmap.
Manage, unblock, and accelerate cross-team projects spanning multiple functional teams and cross-functional initiatives. Instill an efficient project management mindset and workflow across the teams.
Identify and resolve systemic execution issues across the team or group that require broader initiatives to resolve.
Partner with engineering and product leads to scope, staff, and deliver capabilities to achieve company milestones.
Identify, resolve, and escalate key cross team dependencies.
Support leads with quarterly and ongoing staffing plans across the organization, particularly where difficult prioritization conflicts exist.
Collaborate closely with other partner teams, such as hardware, product, and test operations as needed.
Track and communicate the progress of the team or group’s key programs. Define efficient processes for communicating group program status more broadly.
Remove obstacles to drive clarity and progress, identify gaps in communication or schedule, manage issue escalations and provide support to teams balancing competing priorities, and drive results proactively.
Understand technical implementation at the architectural level and propose technical alternatives when necessary; ask questions that clarify priorities.

REQUIRED QUALIFICATIONS:

Minimum of 5+ years experience as a Technical Program Manager, Technical Product Manager, Engineering Manager, or Engineer in an autonomous systems, robotics, or software development environment.
A strong familiarity with robotics or computer vision systems and their architecture preferred.
Solid technical aptitude and an ability to understand technical designs, software development lifecycle, challenges and risks; ability to work closely and effectively with engineering teams.
Experience working in a rapidly iterating test environment with high levels of integration with software development teams.
Strong experience in project management; practical familiarity with both Agile and Waterfall methodologies and ability to apply them where best suited.
Eligible to obtain and maintain an active U.S. Secret security clearance.

PREFERRED QUALIFICATIONS:

Experience in building programs for software and testing deliverables from ground up.
Ability to work within organizations with minimal structure and with minimal direction.
Experience in rolling out potentially disruptive organizational process changes.
Experience with creating communication plans for various levels of stakeholders.
Excellent written and verbal communication skills.
Strong technical, analytical and quantitative skills with the ability to use data and metrics to back up assumptions, recommendations and drive decisions.
Experience with tools like JIRA and Confluence
Professional certifications such as CISSP, OSCP, GIAC-PEN, Prosci, SAFe or PMP
Bachelor’s Degree in Computer Science or an Engineering discipline

US Salary Range

$166,000—$220,000 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.

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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.