Lead Manufacturing Engineer

Lead Manufacturing Engineer

Lead manufacturing process development from prototyping to full-scale production for defense hardware

Location: Santa Ana, California, United States, Asheville, Ohio, United States

Compensation: $113,000 - 149,000 USD / year

About The Role

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 Intelligence Systems is seeking a Lead Manufacturing Engineer to join our team and lead the manufacturing process development for our products. The Manufacturing Team is responsible for rapidly iterating and building cutting‑edge defense hardware, including static equipment, moving ground equipment, and complex vehicles. This responsibility includes everything in the manufacturing value‑chain including, but not limited to, Design for Manufacturability, tool design & selection, process creation & optimization, vendor sourcing & interaction, quality planning, and work documentation associated with the hardware.

About The Job

As a Lead Manufacturing Engineering, you will be responsible for leading a manufacturing engineering team over a set of Anduril's products to drive process improvements, ensure the highest quality of production, and support the development and implementation of new products. The diverse responsibilities of this role will require you to leverage your technical expertise as well as leadership skills to set objectives, build cross‑functional teams, and drive rapid project execution. You will play a crucial role in optimizing manufacturing processes, reducing costs, and increasing efficiencies on existing technologies while also developing new products and scaling to full scale production. The right person for this role can demonstrate past holistic ownership on solving a technical challenge with a creative, physical, solution that they either personally manufactured or oversaw manufacturing on, in a fast‑paced, resource‑limited environment. If you are someone who thrives in such an environment, then this role is for you. This role will be based temporarily at Santa Ana, CA for a 6 month training period before transitioning to Asheville, OH.

What You'll Do

• Execute the manufacturing of a certain product or set of products, from initial prototyping through full‑scale production.
• Lead a team responsible for delivering on‑time completion of development and production units within a product group.
• Work with design engineers during the development process to drive design for manufacturing best practices into the design effort, and help facilitate the transition from design to prototype to rate production.
• Own documentation required for successfully manufacturing product group hardware at scale, such as MBOM's, work instructions & requirements, etc.
• Uphold and advise on quality management and business application programs as they pertain to manufacturing within your area.
• Facilitate make versus buy decisions, and coordinate with internal supply chain teams to manage vendors to ensure quality deliveries on time.
• Collaborate with internal customers and manufacturing planning teams to define capacity planning actions to meet customer needs and expectations.
• Analyze metrics for continuous improvement initiatives (cost reduction, QI reduction & capacity increase).
• Instill a culture of innovation, teamwork, and accountability within the manufacturing engineering product team.
• Develop production and test methodologies and implement best practices to enable scaling production capabilities for larger, more complex products.
• Travel to suppliers and partner sites to do initial sourcing work, solve ongoing production issues, and implement process procedures as required.

Required Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Manufacturing Engineering, Industrial Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, or related technical field.
• 8+ years of experience in manufacturing process development, preferably in a high‑reliability industry.
• Demonstrated expertise in creating clear, detailed work instructions and manufacturing process documentation.
• Experience optimizing manual assembly operations and establishing standardized work.
• Proven ability to analyze and improve manufacturing processes using lean manufacturing principles.
• Strong troubleshooting and problem‑solving skills with ability to implement effective solutions quickly.
• A genuine interest in manufacturing and thirst for learning.
• Proficiency with CAD software for creating assembly documentation and tooling design.
• Excellent communication skills and ability to work effectively in cross‑functional teams.
• Experience with manufacturing execution systems and digital work instructions.
• Familiarity with Statistical Process Control (SPC) and capability studies.
• Knowledge of Design for Manufacturing and Assembly (DFMA) principles.
• Currently possesses and is able to maintain an active U.S. Secret security clearance.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience in defense, aerospace, or other high‑reliability manufacturing environments.
• Harness & PCBA fabrication experience including prior work with or setup/modification/monitoring SMT processes.
• Six Sigma Green Belt or Black Belt certification.
• Software scripting experience in any language.