Senior Product Operations Engineer, Space

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 Space team is dedicated to expanding our AI-powered capabilities into the final frontier, enhancing Space Domain Awareness, Space Control, and Command and Control for U.S. military and allied partners. We're developing fully integrated hardware and software systems, including Lattice for Space Missions and modular payloads, to address growing threats in space and ensure our Guardians maintain a decisive advantage in this contested warfighting domain.

ABOUT THE JOB

We are looking for a Senior Product Operations Engineer to join our Space team in Costa Mesa, CA someone who brings deep technical credibility and the leadership presence to match. This is not a management role, but it is a senior one: you'll be a technical anchor on a tight-knit team, the kind of engineer others look to when something breaks, when architecture decisions need to be made, and when the room needs someone who can cut through noise and drive clarity.

You will operate, maintain, harden, and evolve a classified networking capability that delivers operational Space Domain Awareness data for the United States Space Force. You'll own the reliability and security posture of globally distributed infrastructure in air‑gapped environments standing up new sites, hardening systems to STIG compliance, building and maintaining infrastructure as code, and ensuring observability across the stack.

You'll work hand in hand with Mission Software Engineers, Product Operations teammates, Mission Operations Engineers, and Technical Program Managers to deploy new capabilities on operationally relevant timelines. You'll also be the connective tissue between engineering and the end‑users at customer sites worldwide providing clear documentation, training remote staff, and serving as a first point of contact when issues arise.

This role is directly tied to an ongoing, funded program within Anduril’s Space Business Line. The program requires building and fielding a resilient, software‑defined, distributed mesh networking layer for critical Space Domain Awareness data. We work with mission partners and operators to deploy reliable and robust capabilities on operationally‑relevant fielding timelines to meet complex challenges across the DOD and IC.

WHAT YOU'LL DO

• Serve as a senior technical subject matter expert on a growing Product Operations team supporting a live, operational DoD system, helping set the standard for how the team operates, communicates, and solves problems

• Stand up, harden, and maintain classified Linux‑based infrastructure across globally distributed sites in air‑gapped environments
  • Apply and enforce STIG compliance and system hardening standards across all deployed environments this is not checkbox work, you will own the security posture
• Build, maintain, and evolve infrastructure as code using Ansible/Puppet automating provisioning, configuration management, and deployment pipelines
• Write and maintain operational tooling, automation scripts, and workflow optimizations in Bash and Python
• Architect and maintain comprehensive observability across the stack using Splunk/ELK/Open Search logging, alerting, and tracing for distributed systems
• Manage and operate containerized workloads in Kubernetes at scale in production, classified environments
• Provide real‑time incident response, rapid root‑cause analysis, and resolution of complex issues spanning application code and backing infrastructure
• Collaborate cross‑functionally with Software Engineering, Mission Ops, and TPMs to validate operational readiness of new deployments, features, and integrations
• Provide 24x7 on‑call support as part of a team supporting the Space Domain Awareness mission on behalf of the United States Space Force
• Drive continuous improvement proactive automation, system optimization, and process refinement with minimal supervision and strong judgment on when to elevate

REQUIRED QUALIFICATIONS

• Active U.S. Secret security clearance (non‑negotiable must currently hold and be able to maintain- preferred TS/SCI clearance)
• 5+ years of hands‑on experience with Kubernetes in production environments deploying, scaling, debugging, and managing containerized workloads. This is core to the role, not adjacent.
• Expert‑level Linux proficiency you live in the terminal, you understand the OS deeply (networking, filesystems, systemd, SELinux, kernel tuning) but this is an engineering and operations role, not a sysadmin role. You build and automate, not just maintain.
• Proven experience with STIG compliance and system hardening you've applied STIGs, remediated findings, and understand the "why" behind the controls, not just the checklist
• Strong experience standing up infrastructure in air‑gapped/classified environments you understand the unique constraints and have operated in them
• Proficiency with Ansible Puppet and Terraform for building, managing, and versioning infrastructure as code at scale
• Strong scripting ability in Bash and Python writing production‑grade automation, tooling, and operational scripts
• Hands‑on experience with observability tooling Prometheus, Grafana, and ELK Stack (Elasticsearch, Logstash, Kibana) for monitoring, logging, alerting, and tracing distributed systems
• Leadership presence without the title you command respect through competence, directness, and reliability. You can walk into a room, align a group of strong engineers, and drive decisions. You are not a manager, but people follow your lead because you've earned it.
• Strong communication and documentation skills you can translate complex technical problems into clear, actionable language across audiences
• Strong initiative and self‑direction in isolated, secure environments
• Understanding of software development practices including version control (Git), code review, testing, and agile methodologies
• Enthusiasm for transforming U.S. and allied military capabilities with advanced technology in space environments

PREFERRED QUALIFICATIONS

• Military background particularly veterans who understand the operational environment, the mission, and how to work within DoD culture. This carries real weight for this role.
• Experience with COMSEC and HAIPE‑compliant inline Type‑1 network encryptors
• Networking certifications (CCNA or equivalent)
• Familiarity with Space Domain Awareness data and systems
• Knowledge of Anduril's Lattice OS and its capabilities
• Proficiency in additional languages (Go, Rust, Java) and contributions to open‑source projects

US Salary Range

$183,000—$243,000 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.