Director of AI Engineering & Research, Frontier Systems

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 Integrated Systems (AIS) division specializes in the design and development of distributed, autonomous fire‑control architectures. We are a high‑performing team made up of the world’s best in robotics, autonomy, weapons, networking, and manufacturing. We seek to deliver validated, integrated capabilities to the Department of War and the Intelligence Community. Our team proactively works with our mission partners to shape the employment of these advanced integrated systems to unlock new tactics, techniques, and procedures for warfighting units tasked with today’s most complex challenges.

About the Job

Anduril is seeking a Head of Frontier AI to build a world class machine learning team across capabilities, product, and infrastructure. In this role, you will be responsible for driving the overall strategy for instantiating safe and secure agentic and perception capabilities relevant to the division’s programs and products and set research initiatives that usher in new frameworks of operator‑to‑agent teaming to achieve operational‑efficiency.

• Drive strategy that fields safe and secure performant agents on embedded warfighting compute.
• Manage a cohort of cleared machine learning engineers, researchers, and product managers.
• Provide deep technical leadership to team on design, development, and deployment of advanced AI solutions.
• Leverage and shape the world’s largest defense robotics data set to develop cutting‑edge AI capabilities.
• Coordinate with internal testing and evaluation team(s) to design specialized evaluation benchmarks for defense use‑cases.
• Partner with US‑based Frontier AI Labs to revolutionize the employment of autonomy in embedded hardware.

Required Qualifications

• Management experience leading and growing AI/ML teams.
• Experience deploying AI-technologies into classified environments (e.g., disconnected, air‑gapped, etc.).
• Expertise in deep learning techniques and the latest generative AI technologies (Agents, Vision‑Language Action models, etc.).
• Strong programming skills.
• Eligible to obtain and maintain an active U.S. Top Secret SCI security clearance.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience with edge‑deployed ML systems.
• Prior work in Defense Tech and/or Start Ups.
• Active U.S. Top Secret SCI security clearance.

Salary Range

$335,000 – $444,000 USD (base salary only). 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 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.

Benefits

Additionally, Anduril offers top‑tier benefits for full‑time employees, including:

Healthcare Benefits

• US Roles: Comprehensive medical, dental, and vision plans at little to no cost to you.
• UK & AUS Roles: We cover full cost of medical insurance premiums for you and your dependents.
• IE Roles: We offer an annual contribution toward your private health insurance for you and your dependents.

Additional Benefits

• Income Protection: Anduril covers life and disability insurance for all employees.
• Generous time off: Highly competitive PTO plans with a holiday hiatus in December. Caregiver & Wellness Leave is available to care for family members, bond with a new baby, or address your own medical needs.
• Family Planning & Parenting Support: Coverage for fertility treatments (e.g., IVF, preservation), adoption, and gestational carriers, along with resources to support you and your partner from planning to parenting.
• Mental Health Resources: Access free mental health resources 24/7, including therapy and life coaching. Additional work‑life services, such as legal and financial support, are also available.
• Professional Development: Annual reimbursement for professional development.
• Commuter Benefits: Company‑funded commuter benefits based on your region.
• Relocation Assistance: Available depending on role eligibility.

Retirement Savings Plan

• US Roles: Traditional 401(k), Roth, and after‑tax (mega backdoor Roth) options.
• UK & IE Roles: Pension plan with employer match.
• AUS Roles: Superannuation plan.

The recruiter assigned to this role can share more information about the specific compensation and benefit details associated with this role during the hiring process.

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