Air Vehicle Lead, Thunder

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.

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